u 






! LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

Shelf.Au.3 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 




DR. MARTIN LUTHER, 

Born Nov. lOth, 1483. Died Feb. 18th, 1546. 



THE LIFE 



OF 



Dr. Martin Luther 



OFFERED TO THE LUTHERAN CHURCH IN AMERICA 



PROF. W." WACKERNAGEL, D.D. 



TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN BY 

PROF. C. W. SCHAEFFER, D.D. 



2 



<V 



With 45 Illustrations. 




READING, PA. : 



PUBLISHED BY THE PILGER BOOK STORE. 
1883. 



ST? 2 



Cofiyright, August Bendel, i88j. 




fa 

^9 






TO 

LUTHERANS 



AND 



FRIENDS OF LUTHER, 



IN HONOR OF THE 



FOUR HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY 

OF THE 

BIRTH OF THE GREAT REFORMER, 

IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED BY 
THE AUTHOR. 



unbttis* 



PAGE. 

I. The Dark Hour before the Dawn 7 

II. Germany about A.D. 1500 19 

III. The Heralds of the Morning 25 

1. Luther's Parents, his Birth and Early Youth 25 

2. Magdeburg, Eisenach and Erfurt 31 

3. In the Monastery 40 

4. Ordination to the Priesthood 49 

5. In Wittenberg 51 

6. "HolyKome" 55 

7. Doctor of the Holy Scriptures 60 

IT. The Dawn of Day 68 

8. Indulgence and the Theses 68 

9. Judicial Examination in Augsburg 84 

10. The Disputation at Leipsic 97 

11. The Bull of Excommunication 110 

T. Soon-Day 122 

12. The Diet of Worms 122 

13. At the Wartburg 146 

14. The Fanatics 170 

15. New Order 181 

16. The Gospel in the Empire 192 

17. The Marriage 197 

18. The Translation of the Bible 210 

19. The Catechisms 215 

(5) 



TI. 



TIL 



6 

PAGE. 

20. The Colloquy at Marburg 226 

21. Coburg Castle 237 

22. The Pastor and Professor 262 

23. Church Hymns 278 

At Evening Time it shall be Light 287 

24. The House-Father 287 

25. In Conflict and in Peace 304 

26. Death and Burial 316 

Memorial-Honors 332 




I. 



ty j)ark Ifnttr fofan tip JDattm. 



?0RE than one hundred years before 
the beginning of the Reformation 
in Germany, the cry for a Refor- 
mation in Head and Members, had 
been raised in many places 
throughout Christendom. The 
Latin word Reformatio signifies 
restoration and change of form. 
The Church of Jesus Christ had to be restored 
to its original, pure, scriptural form. The 
man who was regarded as the Head of the 
Church, the Pope, should be distinguished 
above all others as a servant and follower of 
Christ. The members of the church, and es- 
pecially the clergy, should be required to teach and to 
regulate their lives according to the precepts of the Holy 
Scriptures and according to the example of the primitive 

7 




8 



Christian congregations. The Pope claimed to be the 
Vicegerent of Jesus Christ on earth; the priests called 
themselves the chosen generation, the sacred order; the 
laity were, of course, all baptized and repeated their 
prayers in churches without number; and the cross might 
be seen standing up everywhere. Now, was the condition 
of the church really so deplorable as to justify the breath- 
ing of the suspicious word Reformation ? 

A hundred years before the birth of Luther there was 
one Pope occupying the chair of St. Peter, at Rome, and 
at the same time there was another Pope enthroned at 
Avignon, in France. Each of them asserted that he 
himself was the sole, legitimate Pope. Neither of them 
would yield to the other. They cursed each other down 
to the abyss of hell. The Pope in Rome demanded that 
universal Christendom should obey him alone. The Pope 
at Avignon made the same demand for himself. The 
highest aim of each of them was to secure and amass 
large sums of money. By this rupture princes and na- 
tions were involved in bloody conflicts, and groaned mis- 
erably under the weight of two-fold papal exactions. 

This deplorable state of affairs continued for thirty 
years. At last, in the year 1409, there was a Church- 
council held in Pisa. John Gerson, a man of learning, 
was able to prevail upon the Fathers who composed the 
Council, to depose both of the Popes, and to elect another 
one. However, the two Popes who had been opposing 
each other were not willing to submit to the action of the 
Council ; and so it happened that, for six years, there were 
three Popes claiming authority over the church ; and the 
curses, which had previously been only double, then be- 



9 

came three-fold. All three of them were base men ; one 
of them had even been a pirate. 

"Like priest, like people." The records, the popular 
ballads, the proverbs of that period refer to many deplor- 
able features that marked the clerical order. If a man 
were too lazy to work he became a priest or a monk. It 
was a very easy affair to enter the priesthood. The pope 
indeed had expressly commanded that not more than one 
man in ten should become a cleric. To the men thus set 
apart to the office of servants and teachers of the Holy 
Scriptures, the Word of God and the exposition of it, as 
given in the writings of the ancient teachers of the church, 
who had been sound in the faith, was like a treasure hid- 
den in a field, altogether unknown. To lead a lazy life; 
to enjoy the pleasures of the table and the bowl; to spend 
the time in all kinds of amusements ; to indulge, without 
check, the passions and desires of the carnal mind; to be 
exempt from the duties and responsibilities of good citi- 
zens ; then, after all, to grind down the common people, 
and finally to be welcomed to heaven like a saint; all this 
constituted the one grand aim and expectation of the 
great mass that composed the clerical order. The num- 
ber of priests, monks and nuns was excessive, and they 
could be tolerated only for the reason that the countries 
afflicted by their presence had, at that time, more abun- 
dant means for supporting them than they have at present. 

Of course, here and there, some few of the clergy had 
no sympathy at all with the disorderly lives of the men 
of their order, and deeply deplored the ruin of the church. 
When that pirate had been elected Pope, a cardinal re- 
marked: "The church has become so corrupt that it is 



10 



not possible for a good pope to get along with it; it can 
be governed and managed by miscreants alone." In 
England the preaching of John Wicklif commanded 
widespread attention. He sought to secure for the Holy 
Scripture the honor that was its due, and to deliver his 
fellow-countrymen from the power of the Pope, "that 
most cursed of all extortioners." He stood so high in the 
confidence of the people that the bishops did not dare to 
touch him. In Germany, and especially in the cities of 
Germany, the seed that had been sown by the evangelical 
preacher, Tauler, and the so-called Friends of God, was 
quietly springing up and growing. However, open avowals 
of the evangelical faith were, as yet, prevented. In Augs- 
burg more than two hundred persons were burned at the 
stake as heretics. Who these martyrs were, we know not ; 
but the flames which consumed one solitary, sick man 
on July 6th, 1415, started a fire, the red glow of which 
flashed far out upon the dark night, and so continued 
until the morning of the new day arose. 

John Hus, born in Bohemia in 1373, became Professor 
of Theology in the University of Prague in the year 1398. 
He was a man richly endowed and eloquent. He was 
upright in his life, and his chief delight was in the study 
of the Holy Scriptures. After having become preacher 
of the Bethlehem Church in Prague, he grew to under- 
stand the desperate evils that were afflicting the people 
and sought to apply the balm of Gilead for their heal- 
ing. He described in bold language the corruption of the 
church, the domineering presumption of the bishops, the 
ignorance of the priests, the vicious lives of the monks, 
the mass of trash that superstition had piled up every- 



11 



where, and the unutterable miseries which the oppressed 
people had to suffer in consequence. The very beginning 
of his movement produced such an agitation that one of 




John Hits. 



the three Popes actually excommunicated him. Hus 
then left Prague, but protected by the nobility residing 



12 

in the country, he kept on preaching. Numerous pro- 
ductions of his pen were circulated through the city, and 
so served to continue the public agitation. Hus defied 
the Pope's Bull of excommunication, and appealed to the 
decision of a Council. 

In the year 1414, a Council was convened at Constance 
on the Lake of Constance. The German Emperor, Sigis- 
mund, presided over the illustrious assembly, to attend 
which the three Popes also had been cited. Through the 
influence of John Gerson the Council strongly and em- 
phatically demanded that the desolation and ruin which 
the shepherds were bringing upon the flock be arrested, 
and that a Reformation in head and members be under- 
taken, in the hope of thereby turning aside the wrath 
of Almighty God. This the three Popes withstood with 
determined resistance; but the five hundred bishops 
unanimously declared that the authority of a Council 
was superior to that of a Pope, and was fully competent 
to depose him. They also declared that the assertion that 
the Pope was lord over all and had supreme power upon 
earth was a fundamental error. They then elected a 
new Pope; but he too proved to be like the former ones, 
full of pride, tyrannical and swollen with the spirit of 
lying. The German princes and cities strongly insisted 
upon a reformation, but the French and Italians, together 
with all the bishops argued strongly against it, and so 
defeated the special object for which the Council had been 
called. 

John Hus was summoned to appear at this council. 
Strange to say, however, that very Gerson who had so 
openly argued for a renovation of the church, came for- 



13 



ward in direct opposition to Hus, charged him with 
heresy, and voted for his condemnation. Hus addressed 
his plea of defence to ears that would not hear. The 
ecclesiastical dignitaries were exasperated, they raised a 




hue and cry against the testimony of this faithful witness 
of the truth, they declared John Hus to be unworthy of 
the priestly office, and condemned him to be burnt at the 



14 

stake. Though he had been much enfeebled by his long 
imprisonment, they got him ready for the last act in a 
most shameful manner, and hurried him off outside of 
the city walls. He made no resistance as they bound 
him to the stake. A certain nobleman on horseback ap- 
proached him and called upon him to recant, that his 
life might be spared. To this appeal Hus replied : " God 
is my witness, that in all my teaching I never sought any 
thing else than to lead men away from sin and to bring 
them into the Kingdom of God, and to-day I am ready to 
die rejoicing in the truth of the Gospel." Thereupon the 
pile was set on fire. Three times Hus lifted up his voice 
in prayer: "Christ, thou Son of the living God, have 
mercy upon me ! " and soon found peace in death. His 
ashes were borne away upon the waters of the Rhine. 
Ten months after this, Jerome, of Prague, the friend and 
fellow-witness of Hus was condemned to death and burnt 
in like manner. 

The Bohemians were aroused to revolt in the most deter- 
mined manner, in consequence of this murdering of their 
teachers. The nobility had the Gospel preached openly 
everywhere on their estates, and renounced their allegi- 
ance to the Pope. The Pope answered this with a rule of 
excommunication, and prepared to overrun their country 
with the desolations of war. The Bohemians defended 
themselves so heroically that the emperor failed to subdue 
them. It is to be lamented that the Bohemians them- 
selves resorted to terrible cruelties. Before long they 
ceased to fight solely for the free exercise of their religion, 
and began to persuade themselves that they were called, 
as the elect of heaven, to root out the Roman Canaanites. 



15 

Hosts of Husites forced their way into Silesia and Saxony, 
burning and desolating the cities and villages in their 
path. 

In the year 1431, there was another Council of the 
Church convened, this time at Basle on the Rhine. Its 
transactions were continued for the space of seventeen 
years, and there was very much talk about a reformation. 
However, when the Council had finally adjourned, it ap- 
peared that nothing had been done. The Bohemians had 
sent delegates to this Council, and many privileges were 
accorded to them. Yet, after the adjournment, the cove- 
nant that had been made with them was broken, and the 
yoke of Rome was again imposed upon them. The reso- 
lutions of the Council of Basle looking towards a reforma- 
tion which had been urged and adopted by the German 
States, were declared by the Pope to be null and void, and 
that without ceremony. 

All the efforts of these councils to bring about a refor- 
mation, however well intended they may seem to have 
been, were nothing but empty shells. They wanted in- 
deed to stretch a new skin over the dying body, but they 
could not put a new heart within. They talked much 
about purifying the outward life, but they neither w^ould 
nor could say much about purifying the doctrine and 
about the true life of the soul. The whole form of wor- 
ship had become so empty, the offering of prayer such a 
lifeless lip-service, the consciousness of divine truth had 
given place to such stupid babbling of certain set phrases, 
and faith had fallen down before such nonsensical super- 
stition, that even the more respectable members of the 
clergy did not know what man needed in order to be 



16 



saved. Still the feeble flame kept flickering here and 
there, for God in His mercy did not allow it to be alto- 
gether extinguished. 

Thomas-a-Kempis who had written four books on The 
Imitation of Christ, lived in a cloister at Zwoll, on the 
lower Rhine. One of his favorite pupils was John Wessel, 
the most distinguished University Professor of his day. 
A man who afterwards became Pope had been a friend of 
his youth. When Wessel went to Rome on a visit, this 
Pope proposed to make him a bishop. Wessel's desires, 
however, were not to secure distinction and riches, but to 
be the possessor of a copy of the Bible in the original 
Hebrew and Greek languages. The Pope graciously ac- 
corded the wishes of his friend. More heartily gladdened, 
than he could have been if he had been made a bishop, 
Wessel returned to his home, and lived until the end of 
his days, in 1489, the happiest of men, for he had got 
possession of the Word of God, and in that word he had 
discovered that Christ was his wisdom and his righteous- 
ness. By his writings, which were numerous, he imparted 
very freely to other people all that he had himself learned 
out of the Bible ; and these writings afterwards came into 
the hands of Luther in a very remarkable way. Luther 
himself says concerning them : "If I had read them at an 
earlier day my enemies might say that I had got every 
thing from Wessel." 

Thus far our remarks have referred to the Head and the 
Members, that is, to the Pope and the Priests. But what 
was the condition of the body, that is, of Christendom 
itself at that time? The children were all baptized, but 
in the hands of the priests the holy sacrament of baptism 



17 



was only a tedious ceremony, without spirit and life. 
They all learned to pray with the lips only, not with 
the heart. The prayers were all written down and* 
counted off, and had to be addressed to the Virgin Mary 
and to the saints. By way of practice, and indeed, by 
way of punishment, the Lord's Prayer had to be repeated 
dozens and dozens of times. They all heard about the 
Creed, but even if they could repeat the three articles, 
the priest never asked them: "What does that mean?" 
They knew nothing about the love of Christ; but they 
looked upon him as a terrible judge, whose wrath could 
be appeased by the Virgin Mary alone. They were nearly 
all ignorant of the history of the Word of God ; they were 
strangers to its doctrine, and even the teachers of the 
church themselves knew precious little about it. The 
church did not teach and exhort them to love God above 
all things, and to love their neighbor as themselves; but 
it urged them to attend Mass, to pray and pay money for 
the dead who were in the flames of purgatory, to offer 
their prayers to the Virgin Mary and the Saints, to rever- 
ence the bones and skulls of the Saints, to go on pilgrim- 
ages, to keep fast-days, and above all and throughout all, 
to devote their money and their possessions to the church. 
It was a very rare thing for the. people to hear the Word 
of God preached in their own language. At the altar 
the priest sang the service in Latin, and even when he 
would preach he had nothing to say about Christ and 
His merits, but only about human ordinances and stories 
about the Saints. Remission of sin could be bought 
with silver, admission to heaven could be secured for 
gold, the clerical rank was held to be the summit of per- 

2 



18 



fection, and the priests claimed to be the mediators be- 
tween God and man. Blind submission to the authority 
.of the church was exacted with unrelenting rigor. The 
clergy were quite indulgent towards the world and its 
carnal pleasures, for the reason that they were so fond of 
these carnal pleasures themselves. For the amusement 
of the people they even introduced theatrical exhibitions 
into the church. The word which the Lord uttered 
against those who profaned the temple at Jerusalem was 
finally fulfilled in them also; but in what way? 




II. 



iarmmtij akl JL J)+ 1500. 




7 AXIMILIAN I, a man of heroic 
character and of generous im- 
pulses, occupied the throne of 
the Roman Empire at the end 
of the fifteenth century. The 
people themselves cherished a 
sincere affection for their amia- 
ble sovereign; but the munici- 
Oi\ pal authorities withheld the reverence that was his 
V*^ due. Even the princes of the empire themselves 
jj failed, at times, to treat him as their superior. 
The most faithful friend that Maximilian had 
\\ was Count Eberhard, the Bearded, Count of Wur- 
temberg. The emperor convened a Diet of the Empire 
about the year 1495, at Worms. The empire was divided 
into ten districts, a Supreme Court of Judicature was or- 
ganized, a small imperial tax was levied, and initiatory 

(18) 



tfr* 



20 



steps were taken towards the establishment of a regular 
postal service. The estates refused to vote money for any 
further improvements. The transactions of the Diet ceas- 
ing to be oral, were continued in a written form, and the 




Maximilian I. 
whole business was committed to men learned in the law, 
who were never able to finish it. In 1498, the Swiss with- 
drew from the empire and entered into an alliance with 



21 



France. Conflicts broke out in the Netherlands, and in the 
cities there was much disorder. The peasantry, severely 
oppressed alike by the nobles and the priests, were violent 
in their own defence. The emperor's dominions in Italy 
gave him much trouble. Even at that early day France 
began to assume the attitude of hostility to Germany; 
but Germany's hereditary mortal enemy was the Turk, 
who was ever making inroads more and more deeply 
into the territory of the empire. The reign of Maxi- 
milian was not a happy one. 

Among the seven Electors of the Empire, the Elector of 
Saxony was the most illustrious. At that time, Saxony 
included considerably more territory than it does at pres- 
ent. What was more important, however, is that the 
electors w r ere good rulers, careful administrators, and 
their judgment was of great weight in the estimation 
both of the emperor and of the princes. The nobility, 
numerous as they were, were kept in proper subordina- 
tion, and the clergy was not permitted to meddle in the 
administration of civil affairs. Saxony afforded a pleas- 
ant home to its inhabitants, especially to its free citizens. 
Even the peasantry did not suffer, for the harvests were 
full and abundant. Until the time of the thirty years' 
war, the region of Magdeburg was proverbial throughout 
the empire for its fertility, so plentiful were its harvests 
and so rich the rewards that attended its cultivation. 

The citizen of a free imperial city enjoyed a more com- 
fortable life than did the nobleman even in his castle 
upon the hills in the open country. In olden times the 
cities were always surrounded with the defences of strong 
walls and towers, and at night the lofty gates were care- 



22 



fully locked and guarded. The streets were narrow and 
irregular, and often close beside the stately residence of 
an ancient family you might see the humble home of a 
poor day-laborer. The houses of the rich were beauti- 
fied both within and without with artistic skill, and the 
open grounds for public resort were adorned by the pres- 
ence of living fountains of water. The many churches 
and chapels, the cloisters and pastoral residences testified 
to the liberality of the pious, whilst in the consecrated 
structures an incalculable amount of wealth, in the form 
of jewels and articles of value, was hoarded up. The me- 
chanics of many cities were artists in their line, and their 
skillful hands turned out many productions of extraordi- 
nary beauty. The Hanseatic cities of North Germany 
controlled the trade of Northern Europe, whilst Frank- 
fort, Niirnberg and Augsburg had possession of the com- 
merce of the South. Many a merchant was the owner of 
princely wealth, and felt himself to be of more conse- 
quence than a count. 

In the early times the cities were the places where 
science and art were cherished. The University of Prague 
was founded in A.D. 1348, that of Heidelberg in 1386, 
Erfurt in 1392, Leipsic in 1409, Rostock in 1419, Basle 
in 1460, and Tubingen in 1477. All these universities 
moved regularly in the interests of the papacy until the 
time of the Reformation. The theologians ventured not 
beyond the limits defined by the papal statutes and pre- 
scribed by certain heathen philosophers. The classic 
authors of antiquity were studied with great diligence, 
and the beauty of their language charmed their readers 
so much that they were perverted from Christianity and 



23 



became heathen. Others, however, found the study of 
the ancient languages to be a means of attaining to the 
Kingdom of God, for by the knowledge of these lan- 
guages they w r ere led into the understanding of the Holy 
Scriptures. At the same time poetry was cultivated with 
equal diligence, and a distinguished school of painting 
produced illustrious masters in the art. 

It was indeed an age of great excitement. In the year 
1356, a German invented gunpowder, w 7 hich was used 
for blasting as well as for the work of war. Yet, vastly 
more important w T as the discovery of the art of printing 
by a German also, John Guttenberg, in the year 1440. 
The first books that were printed were portions of the 
Holy Scriptures. The value of the services w T hich the 
art of printing has rendered to the church cannot be 
described. The monks, however, branded it as a Satanic 
art, because they saw that it would interfere w T ith their 
gains as copyists. In the year 1497, adventurous naviga- 
tors doubled the Cape of Good Hope and sailed as far 
as India, a land that had been fabulous for its wealth in 
gold and precious stones. Five years before this the con- 
tinent of America had been discovered. The dominion 
of the Moors which, for eight hundred years, had ruled 
over Southern Spain, was overthrown, and after long 
continued conflicts the cross rose in triumph above the 
crescent. 

However, in that very region where the cross should 
have beamed forth its brightest lustre it was shrouded in 
the darkness of night and surrounded with poisonous 
vapors. There is an old proverb that was prevalent at 
that time even in Rome, which says, " If there be a hell, 



24 



Rome is certainly built right over it." Pope Sixtus IV 
regarded the chair of St. Peter simply as the means for 
increasing the territorial possessions of his family. Pope 
Innocent VIH made rich provision for his sixteen illegiti- 
mate children. Alexander VI openly and audaciously 
practiced the most unnatural scandals, and raised his 
favorite son, who emulated his father in the most abom- 
inable vices, to the dignity of cardinal. He himself 
died of poison which he had prepared to be drunk by 
another. Jnlhis II was a pope in armour. He was not 
able to pray, and he regarded the study of the Holy 
Scriptures as ridiculous, but his great delight was to be 
at the head of his cavalry hewing down his enemies. It 
was during the primacy of this warlike pope that the 
German monk Martin visited the Roman Sodom and 
Gomorrah. To this man we now propose to introduce 
our readers. 




Ill 



>Ip If *rafo* of tip Btrnomj. 



1. LUTHER'S PARENTS, HIS BIRTH AND EARLY 
YOUTH. 




MOUNTAINOUS region rises in the heart of 
Germany, rich in forests and marked 
by narrow valleys, abounding in re- 
freshing streams of water. It is known 
as the forest of TMringen. At its west- 
ern boundary and not far from the town 
of Salzungen lies the village of Mohra. 
About the year 1483, the population of 
this village consisted of some fifty fami- 
lies, sturdy, honest and prosperous peasants, the most of 
them being the owners of the ground they cultivated. 
There was a chapel in Mohra itself, but the church of the 

(25) 



26 



parish to which Mohra belonged stood in the village of 
Hausen near Salzungen. 

The peasant race from which Luther descended had, 
for many years, been settlers at Mohra. The name itself 
has altogether an honorable signification, for "Luther" 
means a man of distinction in the army. The citizens 
of Mohra kept themselves aloof from the turmoils of war- 
fare, but they understood well how to maintain their 




Hans Luther. 

rights in peace. The most distinguished man of the 
family of Luther never blushed to acknowledge that he 
had descended from a race of peasants. " I am the son 
of a peasant," he once said; "my father, my grandfather, 
and my great grandfather were all industrious peasants." 
Martin Luther's father, Hans Luther, was the oldest 
son of his parents. It had been from old times the pre- 



27 



vailing usage of the peasants of Thiiringen that the in- 
heritance of the family estate should descend to the 
youngest son. The elder brothers upon assuming any 
domestic responsibilities of their own always left home to 
establish themselves elsewhere; and Hans Luther as a 
skillful miner found employment in Mohra, where the 
yield of copper was such as to reward the toil of the 
laborer. Shortly after his marriage he removed from 
Mohra to the county of Mansfield near the Harz moun- 
tains, first taking up his abode in Eisleben, where also 
he was occupied with mining as it was there carried on. 
Six months after his son Martin was born, he settled in 
Mansfield and became a burgher of that enterprising city. 
Though somewhat straitened in circumstances at first, 
he was nevertheless enabled in due time to extend his 
mining operations, and having rented two furnaces be- 
longing to the Count of Mansfield he managed them in 
his own interest. In honor of his strict integrity the 
citizens made him a member of the City Council, and 
the aged Count Gunther held him in high honor for his 
unwearied industry. Hans Luther was a good man, ren- 
dering due reverence to the ecclesiastical authority, seek- 
ing to w T alk uprightly before God, and professing the 
faith that was maintained by the church. He was accus- 
tomed to associate freely with the clergy of Mansfield, 
because he felt that his own knowledge might be in- 
creased by intercourse with learned men. However, he 
was not backward in speaking of anything of which he 
disapproved, and was specially pointed in condemning 
the clergy for interfering with the rights of parents and 
the private affairs of families. 



28 



The family name of Margaret, Luther's mother, was 
Ziegler. She descended from an old Franconian family, 
and had relations living at Eisenach and Gotha. She 
was a true helpmate of her husband, faithfully sharing 
with him in the heat and burden of the day. In the 
early times of their residence in Mansfield she would 
even go out into the forest, and gathering up wood for 
domestic uses, would carry it home upon her shoulders. 




Margaret Luther. 



As Hans Luther himself rose in standing and in the con- 
sideration of his fellow citizens, the respect accorded to 
Madam Margaret advanced in the same proportion. Me- 
lanchthon heard her spoken of in Mansfield as a paragon 
of virtuous women, specially distinguished for purity, 
piety and devotion. Both the father and mother attained 
good old age. They were both somewhat low of stature, 



29 

with well developed limbs, and of dark complexion. 
They had four sons and three daughters. Two sons and 
the three daughters, the wives of Mansfield burghers, 
survived them. 

Parental joy first entered the home of Hans and Mar- 
garet Luther between 1 1 and 12 o'clock on the night of 
November 10th, A.D. 1483, when a healthy boy first rested 
in their arms. The next day he was baptized in St. 
Peter's Church; his father giving him the name Martin, 
in honor of the pious knight Martinus, who had been re- 
vered as a saint, and whose festival occurred on November 
11th. The name Martin is derived from Mars, the god of 
war, among the Romans; and so both the baptismal name 
and the family name of Luther have a warlike sound, and 
truly Martin Luther was a chosen leader to carry on the 
wars of the Lord. 

Martin began to go to school in his early youth. If 
the weather was unfavorable, or the roads obstructed with 
the drifted snows of winter, his stronger school-mate, 
Nicholas Oemler, would come and help him along. Yet, 
his parents did not fail in their duty and did not commit 
to the schoolmaster the work of training the mind and 
the heart of their child in the knowledge and the fear of 
God. Their discipline in their family was strict, and 
whilst Martin stood in wholesome fear of his father, his 
heart turned towards his mother in childlike affection. 
Being her first-born he was specially dear to her, because 
he gave to the younger children such a fine example of 
obedience and good behavior. 

The little Martin rapidly acquired whatever learning 
was taught in the village school, such as reading, writing, 



30 



arithmetic and the principles of Latin grammar. The 
teacher was a hard master, not qualified for his position, 
and hasty in heating his scholars unmercifully for the 
least blunder, on account of which, as was natural, their 
improvement was slow. In consequence of such severe 
handling Martin began to lose his cheerfulness and be- 
came reserved and shy. From his hard experience in 




Luther taken to School. 

school, however, he always found a pleasant relief in 
going to church, where both eyes and ears were gratified, 
where the senses were charmed and fascinated, where the 
imagination was specially aroused by the display of so 
much that was mysterious. The choral music and the 



31 



organ had peculiar attractions for him, and on the great 
festivals, Christmas, Easter and Pentecost, the whole con- 
gregation was accustomed to sing short hymns in the 
German language. Sometimes the children had to re- 
peat the ten commandments, the creed and the Lord's 
prayer in the church, although there was as little instruc- 
tion given upon these subjects and upon the history of 
the Bible in general as upon the preaching of the Gospel 
itself. In Mansfield even, although the priests were not 
illiterate, nevertheless they were blind guides. The peo- 
ple knew nothing about the faith of the Gospel, and so 
their minds were the more completely filled up with the 
wild phantoms of superstition. Everywhere, both in 
town and in the country, they would see ghosts, and 
everywhere they were terrified with the dread of evil spir- 
its. The most cruel proceedings against witches orig- 
inated in that age, and even people who were otherwise 
intelligent, as Luther's parents were, were deluded by this 
superstitious notion. In later years Luther related many 
a sad and melancholy instance of this heathen supersti- 
tion, showing the horrors of its gloomy reign before the 
day of the Reformation had dawned upon the world. 

2. MAGDEBURG. EISENACH AXD ERFURT. 

When he was fourteen years old, Martin left the home 
of his parents and went to Magdeburg. He had, as a 
traveling companion, Hans Reinecke, whose family were 
in easy circumstances. This young man showed much 
kindness to Luther, who, indeed, stood in need of it; and 
in after years the great Doctor Martin never forgot it. 



32 



In Magdeburg, the brethren of the Common Life, of 
which order Thorn as-a-Kempis and John Wessel were 
members, had opened a high school to which many 
students resorted. The tuition was gratuitous, but the 
students had to provide their own support. They organ- 
ized companies of singers among themselves, who would 
go from house to house singing their melodies, in the 
hope that people would give them bread, for the love of 
God. Martin also belonged to such a company, and 
many a time got his daily bread by singing; yet he was 
not altogether without means in Magdeburg, for, he was 
often invited to enjoy the hospitality of Dr. Mosthauer. 
In Magdeburg he formed a friendship with a school-fel- 
low somewhat older than himself, Winceslaus Link, and 
this friendly attachment continued for life. His close 
application to study and his insufficient supply o/ whole- 
some food, was more than his youthful strength could 
bear; and so he was laid up with a severe attack of fever. 
One day when his companions were in attendance at 
church, he worked himself along on hands and feet into 
the kitchen, and having there taken a hearty drink of 
cold water, he returned to his bed and fell into a deep 
sleep, from which he awoke refreshed and free from the 
fever. 

In the streets of Magdeburg he would sometimes meet 
a monk, who, by his fastings and watchings, had been 
wasted away to skin and bone, bearing the heavy pack 
of a beggar upon his weary shoulders. The people would 
whisper to each other, "that is a holy man." This was 
210 other than a prince of Anhalt, who expected to earn 
heaven by these severe penances; but alas! he would 



33 



find himself mistaken, for he thought more of his own 
merits than of the merits of Christ. 

During the Christmas holidays, Martin, in company 
with others, would go on singing excursions into the 
country, hoping that the farmers would give them some 
animal food in return for their music. As they sang 
about the child Jesus, in front of a certain house, the 
owner suddenly rushed out, and, in a very rough tone 
cried out "boys, where are you?" Terribly alarmed they 
scampered off; but at some distance, turning around, 
they saw the farmer beckoning to them, with food in his 
hands. This restored their confidence, and going back to 
him they obtained what they had desired. 

As Martin's mother had relations living at Eisenach, 
it was the wish of his parents that he should go thither, 
which he did, after having spent only one year at Mag- 
deburg. It was naturally expected that these relations 
would take some friendly interest in the boy's welfare ; 
and so he was received into the family of his cousin Con- 
rad, Clerk of the church of St. Nicholas. However, as 
he had to supply his own daily bread, nothing remained 
for him but the former practice of singing for his living, 
which, nevertheless, proved to be a very hard service. He 
lost much precious time, and often had to go supperless 
to bed. His spirits sank, and in gloomy seasons he would 
contemplate abandoning the studies in which he so 
much delighted, and going back to engage in the work 
of mining at Mansfield. Then, however, Providence 
raised up for him a friend to act the part of a mother. 
Madam Ursula, wife of a prosperous merchant, Kunz 
Cotta, had for a long time been much pleased with the 



34 



fine voice of the Mansfield boy, and favorably impressed 
by the spirit of devotion with which he joined in the 
worship of the church. She took him into her own 
house and gave him protection and support, so that, de- 
livered as he was from anxious cares about his subsist- 
ence, he could now prosecute his studies with his whole 
heart. Through his daily intercourse with this excel- 
lent woman he acquired refined manners, and was saved 
from having any sympathy or part in the usually rough 
and reprehensible behavior of the school boys. The 
family of Schalbe, from which Madam Ursula descended, 
also showed him kindness. This family had established, 




Luther before Madam Cotta's House. 



at the foot of Wartburg, a small cloister school, called 
Schalbe College, to which poor students were admitted. 
Here Luther was allowed to come and go at pleasure, 
the occupants of the establishment paying him much at- 



35 



tention, and especially Master Braun, who was the Yicar 
of St. Mary's Chapter. Martin's spirit, that had been 
much beclouded, now cleared up again under the influ- 
ence of so much friendliness and love; and he became a 
bright and cheerful young man, the favorite of his friends 
and benefactors. 

In the school of St. George's Church, Martin received 
a thorough training. The teacher, John Trebonius, was 
a man of considerable learning. It was his custom, upon 
entering his school-room, to remove his cap and salute 
his scholars with marked politeness; for, he said, the 
Lord may, perhaps, make doctors or chancellors, or 
rulers and governors out of many of these young men. 
The way that Trebonius took to inspire his pupils with 
the love of learning was different from that which had 
been pursued by the tyrant of the school at Mansfield. 
Luther ever cherished a grateful remembrance of him, 
and also of his able assistant Wigand, who afterwards 
became a preacher of the gospel. The teachers, for their 
part, spoke in high terms of Luther's extraordinary gifts 
and of his astonishing application. He was distinguished 
by the felicity and copiousness of his address, and was 
far in advance of all his fellow students. 

Early in the summer of 1501, Martin Luther entered 
the high school at Erfurt. Hans Luther wanted his son 
to be a jurist; and so it was his wish that Martin should 
study jurisprudence at Erfurt. He cherished the hope 
perhaps, that his son might become burgomaster of 
Mansfield, or even chancellor of the elector. It was now 
no longer necessary for the son to get his bread by sing- 
ing, for his father had come to be a man of considerable 



36 



property, and Martin was furnished with funds sufficient 
to buy his books, an advantage which did not fall to the 
lot of every student. 

Erfurt was a large and prosperous city, even wealthy. 
Its university held the first rank among all the high 
schools of Germany. In learning and in aptness to 
teach, its professors rivalled the proud doctors of the cele- 
brated University of Paris. Jodocus Trutvetter and Ar- 
noldi von Usingen, both of them philosophers and theo- 
logians, were celebrated throughout all Germany and 
famous as the Erfurt doctors; whilst Peter Luder, Mater- 
nus Pistoris, and Nicholas Marschalk, were distinguished 
as teachers of the ancient languages, and as commenta- 
tors of the classic poets. 

According to the usage then prevailing, Luther did not, 
at once, enter upon the subject of jurisprudence, but be- 
gan with the study of philosophy. This included seven 
different branches, commonly called the liberal arts, 
namely: grammar, rhetoric, dialectics, arithmetic, geom- 
etry, physic, astronomy. Further, the classic languages 
and authors also, were included in the course of philoso- 
phy. After the student had finished the study of all these 
several branches, then he could begin to give attention to 
the special subject which he had chosen for his profes- 
sion. These preparatory studies were altogether in har- 
mony with Luther's taste and disposition. His habit of 
close application still clung to him at Erfurt. He found 
great delight in the study of the ancient languages and 
authors, and in respect to rhetoric and logical reasoning 
his talents were of a high order. He took great interest 
in pondering upon difficult questions and endeavoring 



37 

to solve them. He would even amuse himself by start- 
ing cunningly devised subjects and disputing about 
words. The chief text-book acknowledged in all the uni- 
versities was the work of the heathen philosopher, Aris- 
totle, who was so profoundly venerated as to be regarded 
as the great teacher of the philosophy of faith. Theolo- 
gians did not hold the Divine Scriptures to be the rule 
and measure of their teachings. The heathen, Aristotle, 
held the position the Holy Scriptures should have occu- 
pied; and along with him ranked the Scholastics, as 
they are called, who, instead of the pure doctrine of the 
church, bright with Divine life, fixed up a hideous, bony 
skeleton without flesh and blood, and fumbled so reck- 
lessly with the letter of the word that the Spirit itself de- 
parted from them, leaving, in the letters, nothing but 
piercing thorns behind. 

The life of the university, which was largely attended, 
was a very busy one, and Luther threw himself heartily 
into it. He marched with the students in their public 
processions, and was sure to attend all academic exer- 
cises, giving close attention to the speeches and discus- 
sions. In the circle of his familiar friends he was spoken 
of as the learned philosopher, and never failed to be 
present when important questions were agitated in a 
public meeting. However, poetry of the highest order, 
and the most profound philosophy could not long satisfy 
his heart, which, even whilst he was occupied in the 
study of Aristotle, had begun to feel a raging thirst for 
the Truth. It was the will of God that he should study 
philosophy thoroughly, in order that he might learn by 
experience, both for his own good and for that of many 



38 



others, that it is not the rich, but only the poor in spirit 
who enter into the kingdom of heaven. This thorough 
understanding of what was false in the scientific teach- 
ings of the day, enabled him afterwards to oppose those 
false teachings with great effect. The time that Luther 
spent at Erfurt was not lost any more than was the time 
which Moses spent during his education at the Egyptian 
Court, or the time that Paul spent as a student at the 
feet of Gamaliel. Yet, it was not the most effectual 
place of training after all. 

During his residence in Erfurt, Luther was regular in 
his attendance at church. The pastor, Sebastian Wein- 
mann, was earnest in urging his people to maintain cor- 
rect morals, and Luther was much interested in his ser- 
mons, although he never heard anything beyond the 
thunders of the law, the gospel itself having neither local 
habitation nor friend in Erfurt. The lives of most of the 
clergy and of the monks, were scandalous. When a cer- 
tain rich and luxurious canon of the church was about 
to die, he cried out, " O, that I had been only the servant 
of a swineherd !" The church always put on a great dis- 
play w T henever any high church official would visit the 
city, and the professors of the university always paid 
great court to the visiting dignitary. It was considered 
important to have credit for sincere devotion to the 
papacy, and, to present the appearance of piety and sub- 
ordination, at least. 

Luther had been a whole year in Erfurt before he had 
a sight of the Holy Bible, a book for which even the 
learned men of Erfurt had no regard. He had had no 
thought that the Bible contained anything more than 



39 



the lessons that were publicly read in the church from 
the Gospels and the Epistles. In the library of the uni- 
versity he took the Holy Scriptures in the Latin language 
into his own hand for the first time. In glad surprise at 




Luther flnds the Bible ra the Library at Erftjrt. 

the large volume, he opened it, and was charmed by read- 
ing the history of Samuel and Hannah. After this he 
often went to the library, although the Bible had not yet, 
even then, become the book of books to him. 



40 



On St. Michael's day, 1502, Martin Luther received his 
first academical degree, the degree of Bachelor of Arts. 
On Epiphany, in 1505, he was made Master of Arts, being 
the second in a class of seventeen, and he was the pride 
of his teachers and fellow-students. On a certain occa- 
sion, when he was confined to bed in consequence of too 
severe study, a friend of his, a student from Meiningen, 
comforted him with the prophetical declaration, "Martin, 
be of good courage, you'll prove to be a great man yet." 

In compliance with the wishes of his father, Magister 
Martin Luther began the study of jurisprudence in the 
early summer of 1505. His father furnished him with a 
costly work, the Laws of Justinian (Corpus Juris Civilis), 
elucidated by the comments and explanations of mediae- 
val jurists. His teacher was Dr. Gode, a very distin- 
guished man, and the prospect of a successful career 
opened up before him. But, whilst in the midst of these 
scenes, he suddenly disappears. 

3. IN THE MONASTERY. 

A short time before he received the degree of Master, 
Luther had to experience a very severe trial. Whilst 
going homeward on a vacation in company with a friend, 
he inadvertently wounded himself in an artery of the 
leg with the short sword which it was then the fashion to 
wear. As he saw the blood flowing from the wound upon 
the road and afterwards in his room, he called loudly 
upon the Virgin Mary for help. It was with great diffi- 
culty that the flow of blood was checked until the arrival 
of a surgeon, and it opened again during the following 



41 



night. He was confined to his room for a long time, and 
during this time he learned to play the lute. After his 
recovery he was suddenly struck by another terror; for 
one of his friends, whose companionship had been .truly 
pleasant to him, was found one morning dead in his bed 
pierced by a poniard. 

In July, 1505, the young Master went to Mansfield on 
a visit. Upon his return, and when near the City of 
Erfurt, he was overtaken by a storm. The lightning and 
thunder were terrific, and as he sank to the ground in 
mortal dread he cried out: "Help me, O St. Ann, help 
me, and I will be a monk!" The storm passed away, 
and the poor man, crushed both in body and mind, 
crawled towards the town. Upon his freely relating this 
occurrence and his vow to his friends, they strongly dis- 
suaded him from it, but they found that his purpose was 
fixed. He invited his friends to call upon him on the 
evening of July 15th, when he maintained a cheerful 
humor, repelled all attempts at expostulation on their 
part, and took an affectionate farewell of them. The next 
day they accompanied him, with great lamentations, to 
the door of the monastery. 

Martin Luther could not satisfy himself with the mere 
external observance of the rules of the church, as was the 
fashion with so many of his fellow-students. His intel- 
lectual familiarity with the philosophers and poets of 
ancient times had not made him indifferent or skeptical 
concerning matters that relate to eternal life. But this 
eternal life, peace with God, he had not yet been able to 
secure; nor had he advanced so far as to search the 
scriptures. The witness of the grace of God in Christ 



42 



had not yet penetrated his heart; what he knew about 
Christ was not calculated to comfort him, terror-stricken 
as he was under a sense of the wrath of God. This 
wrath had thundered over him three times already. He 




Luther enters the Monastery at Erfurt (1505). 

quaked within himself, even when he seemed to rejoice 
with them that did rejoice, or when he devoted himself 
to his studies he quaked under the fearful thought that 
he might be snatched away instantly and hurled into 
hell. How could he escape this wrath? Whither should 



43 

he go to obtain help and deliverance ? The terrible alarm 
that he felt in the neighborhood of Erfurt had constrained 
him to make the vow to be a monk. The quiet cloister, 
that grave of the living, seemed to him to be a safe har- 
bor where he might escape from the rough waves that 
had been tossing him about. There, free from all worldly 
cares, he would serve God with fasting and in prayer, 
and he proposed to appease Almighty God by a strict life 
of self-denial and mortification. By constant intercourse 
with holy men and familiarity with holy things, he be- 
lieved that he could become holy himself, and indeed, 
grow to be so holy at last that the gates of heaven would 
be opened wide to receive him. In becoming a monk, 
Luther was most deeply in earnest. He was persuaded 
that God himself had put the thought into his heart by 
the intervention of the saints, and especially by that of 
St. Ann the patron saint of the miners. It was for this 
reason that, though otherwise a dutiful son, he did not 
take counsel with his father, but simply informed him of 
his unalterable determination. Hans Luther was very 
much displeased with his son. He very properly charged 
him with disobedience, with a lack of filial respect, warned 
him against self-deception, and expressed his apprehen- 
sion that the life of a monk would not, by any means, 
lead his son to that holiness for which he was hoping. 
But when the father's letter arrived at Erfurt it was too 
late. 

Martin Luther entered into the Augustine Monastery. 
The Order of Augustines was, at that time, in good re- 
pute. They were believed to be men of learning and 
piety. Luther's teacher, Usinger, belonged to this order, 



44 



and the superior of the several monasteries in Thiiringen 
and Saxony, was Dr. John Staupitz, a learned, pious, dis- 
creet man. 

Within the first weeks of Luther's living in the mon- 
astery the plague broke out at Erfurt, and the circle of 
his friends was violently broken. Several of them died 
right off, and Luther, feeling himself to be entirely dead 
to the world, resolved to remain in the monastery until 
his end should come, which, he thought, was already 
near. 

The rules of the order required that the novice should 
be on probation for one year. At the end of his proba- 
tion he had to take a solemn vow, which ran after this 
manner: "I, brother Martin, make my profession, and 
promise obedience to Almighty God and to the holy Vir- 
gin Mary and to you, brother N. Prior of this monastery, 
in the name and stead of the Prior General of the Order 
of Brother Ascetics of St. Augustine, Bishop and his suc- 
cessors; to abandon all private aims and to live in chas- 
tity, according to the rule of the same St. Augustine, until 
I die." After taking this vow he wore the black mantle 
of the order and the leathern hood; having also thrown 
over the cowl, a white scapular, a piece of cloth covering 
the breast in front, and upon the back reaching down to 
the feet. In his cell there was one window that opened 
towards the garden. According to the fashion of monks 
he took a new name, and having selected the name of 
the great church-father, Augustine, he was called brother 
Martinus Augustinus. Yet, after all, he preferred his 
own baptismal name. 

His probation proved to be a very severe one. It looked 



45 

as if the brothers had determined to crush out of the 
novice all the credit and learning of the Master's degree 
by heaping mean and disgraceful services upon him. 
The university remonstrated with the monks on his be- 
half, and the Prior General Staupitz was prompt in show- 
ing his sympathy with brother Martin. As the result of 
this, his services became easier for a time. He had to 
take his bag and go out into the country gathering up 
vegetables and cheese among the farmers. The strict 
observance of the sanctimonious usages of the order was 
exacted of all without distinction. No one was allowed 
to absent himself during the hours appointed for prayer 
by day or by night, or to reduce the prescribed number 
of prayers, or to shorten the time appointed for hearing 
mass and for fasting. The old monks enjoyed themselves 
in imposing the practice of self-denial and of humility 
upon the younger brothers. Among these old monks, as 
is the case in all monasteries, there were some who, not- 
withstanding the strict rules of the order, had fed them- 
selves up into a fine condition of corpulency and managed 
to keep their hands clear of the common work. But 
brother Martin was a sincere monk and terribly strict 
with himself. He aimed to surpass all in devout exer- 
cises. If salvation were dependent upon monkery he 
would certainly have been saved. " In truth," these are 
his own words, "in truth, I have often fasted until I 
became sick and was almost dead." It is said that some 
of the brothers once found him completely exhausted, 
and roused him up again by the sound of music. Those 
persons who, in after years, were his enemies could never 
reproach him with his demeanor during his life in the 



46 



monastery. One of them once spoke of him as a second 
Paul, miraculously converted and put into the sacred 
office. 

It was of great advantage to brother Martin that he 




Luther Aroused from his Exhaustion through Music. 



had a pious and learned monk as his instructor; but 
when the Holy Scriptures were placed in his hands for 
his own private study he held that to be a much higher 
privilege. He kept that book in his cell and always con- 
tinued to read it, until he finally departed from Erfurt. 
Dr. Staupitz exhorted him to endeavor to be well versed 



47 



in the Holy Scripture, so that he might be a good theo- 
logian. Martin, however, was the only monk of the 
monastery who read the Bible. Yet, the Holy Scriptures 
was not the only volume that he studied. The works of 
mediaeval teachers, the scholastics, also stood upon his 
shelf, and he made himself thorough master of their con- 
tents. Here he began already to observe a difference 
between the doctrine of the Bible and the teachings of 
the Church of Rome, and in the course of his careful in- 
vestigation he soon discovered that the most venerated 
doctors did not agree at all, even among themselves. 
Some of them denied the supreme pow r er of the Pope, and 
others had their doubts about the doctrine of the Mass. 
The question that interested him most of all, related to 
man's justification before God, and upon this question he 
noticed the widest difference between the doctrine of the 
Bible and the teachings of men. Sincerely in earnest 
about becoming truly pious, he endeavored to find out for 
himself and for others the right ways and means of being 
so. In this spirit he spent years of study, of prayer and 
of wrestling with God. Often did he sink down in deep 
distress, and then he would seek to comfort himself by con- 
fession and absolution. But what comfort could he find 
here? In the absolution he w r as told that the merits of 
the Virgin Mary, of the saints, of the monk's vow, together 
with his own good works were the means by which forgive- 
ness of sin must be obtained. He sank down to such 
a degree as to believe that he had been fore-ordained to 
be damned, and this lodged him in the depths of melan- 
choly. He shuddered to think of Christ crucified, and 
the psalms sung in the Mass were a torment to his soul. 



48 

The temptation grew more and more severe; and as 
there was no one to sympathize with him he was left all 
alone. The rest of the brothers, never having had any 
sorrowful experience of heart, did not understand the 
condition of brother Martin, and began to think that he 
was beside himself. Yet there was one among them who 
understood his case better than did the others. This was 
his own instructor, who, when his distress was at its 
height, repeated to him the article, "I believe in the for- 
giveness of sins," and assured him that the Lord Him- 
self has encouraged us to hope. Dr. Staupitz, having be- 
come specially interested in the young brother, and, for 
his sake, visiting the monastery at Erfurt more fre- 
quently than the rules of the order required, contributed, 
by the will of God much more to his relief. As well as a 
Roman theologian could understand it, Staupitz led Mar- 
tin by a different path. He rebuked his morbid dispo- 
sition to go about raking up his sins, and told him that 
he was troubling himself only with the phantoms of a 
frightened conscience. God takes no account of imagi- 
nary offences, even as, for His own part, the sacrifice of 
His Son for us, was not an imaginary affair, or a mere 
pretence, and as Christ is not an imaginary, but a posi- 
tive, genuine redeemer. He exhorted him to go to 
Christ, who does not terrify but comforts the soul. As to 
his distressing thoughts about fore-ordination, he en- 
deavored to dispose of them by saying, " Why will you 
torment yourself with such speculations? Behold the 
wounds of Christ and his blood shed for you. If you 
look there, then the Divine predestination will shine 
forth full and clear before you." Brother Martin felt as 
though he had heard a voice from heaven. 



49 



As he began thus to revive, his old instructor helped 
him on a little further, giving him a sermon of the great 
monk St. Bernard, who died A. D., 1153, which sermon 
presented St. Paul's doctrine of justification by faith. 
His conflicts, however, and his craving for Divine com- 
fort drove him more and more into the study of the 
Holy Scriptures. It often happened that one single pas- 
sage would engage his attention for days together, as for 
example, "The Lord is not willing that any should per- 
ish." His most terrible conflicts, however, came on about 
the time when, according to the will of his superior, he 
was about to be ordained a priest. 

4. ORDINATION TO THE PRIESTHOOD. 

Brother Martinus Augustinus was ordained as priest 
on Cantate Sunday, 1507. The fathers of the Augustin- 
ians had resolved that the young monk should be ad- 
mitted to that order which, according to the doctrine of 
the Roman church, by its mediation, secures the grace of 
God for other men. A Romish priest, in the full con- 
sciousness of such a mediatorial office, was authorized to 
esteem himself as more holy than the most pious layman, 
and even superior to the German Emperor. The poorest 
priest could do what the Emperor, with all his power 
and grandeur, could never achieve; for he could produce 
the body of the Lord and make it to be present, in the 
Mass, and then offer this same body as a sacrifice to God. 
To such a depth had the false teachings of Rome de- 
scended. 

Brother Martin was permitted to invite his friends to 



50 



witness his ordination; so he invited Braun and Con- 
rad, of Eisenach, and also his father, of Mansfield. 
The displeasure of his father had ceased, and yet he 
lamented him as the son whom he had lost. Two of his 
sons, younger than Martin, had' died within a short 
time; and after this the disapprobation which he had 
shown of the choice of his oldest son began to disappear. 
On the eve of Cantate he arrived at the monastery of 
Erfurt with twenty horses, all mounted by citizens of 
Mansfield. His design was to do honor to his son. 

The officiating bishop who ordained Martin was John 
Lasphe. As he placed the sacramental cup in Martin's 
hand he said : " Keceive the power to offer sacrifice for 
the living and the dead." When Martin read Mass 
for the first time, he was seized with such trepidation 
that he was just on the point of going away from the 
altar, but his old instructor prevented it in good time. 
He then read through, and observed the many appointed 
ceremonies without mistake. 

After the ceremony, other friends and several Doctors 
and Masters of the university took part in the collation 
that had been prepared in the monastery. Martin, upon 
noticing that his father was interested in cheerful con- 
versation with the clergy, took advantage of a favorable 
opportunity and addressed him thus: "Father, why did 
you oppose me so much and become so much displeased 
with me, not willingly consenting that I should be a 
monk and perhaps, even now, you do not heartily con- 
sent? The life of a monk is certainly tranquil and 
godly." To this, Hans Luther replied with an impressive 
air: "My learned sirs, have you never read in the Holy 



51 



Scriptures, that a man should honor his father and his 
mother?" This startled his son Martin, who at once 
looked down-cast and ventured to make no reply. The 
others interposed, and referred to the occurrence near the 
gate of Erfurt, representing it as a call from heaven. 
But Hans Luther said, significantly: "I pray God that 
it may not prove to have been a phantom of the devil." 
Martin, as long as he lived, could never forget these 
solemn words of his father. 

The new priest devoted himself to his office with 
hearty sincerity. He read Mass every day, and sought, 
by faithfully ministering at the altar, to secure the 
Divine approbation. It fell to his lot to hear confession; 
and in order to protect himself against all enticements 
he would send the females off to the confessional of some 
other priest. He began the work of preaching, though 
he was not yet willing to enter the pulpit, but would 
make spiritual addresses to the monks in the refectory. 
First as monk, and now also as priest, he felt himself to 
be under a two-fold obligation to be an obedient son of 
the church and a faithful servant of the Pope. Indeed, 
so ardent was his devotion to Rome and to the Bishop of 
Rome, that he himself says, that at that time he would 
have been ready to deliver heretics to death and to pile 
up the wood around them. 

5. IN WITTENBERG. 

In 1508, brother Martinus Augustinus Luther was 
twenty-five years of age ; and yet, according to the testi- 
mony of his enemies, he was held to be the most accom- 



52 

plished scholar in the whole order of Augustines. No 
one understood this better than did his superior, Dr. 
Staupitz, whose views had been solicited by the Elector 
of Saxony, concerning the founding of the University of 
Wittenberg and its necessary appointments. When the 
time came to increase its means of instruction, Staupitz 
was commissioned to secure the services of the most com- 
petent men for the professorships; and so the attention 
of the Prior was at once directed to the monk at Erfurt. 

In the year 1490, after the death of the Elector Ernst, 
Saxony was divided into two parts. Duke Albrecht had 
possession of Meissen, with Dresden and Leipsic the seat 
of a university. The Elector Frederick had possession 
of Thuringia in addition to the Electorate. The Elector 
Frederick had enjoyed the advantages of a learned train- 
ing, and was the friend of science and of learned men. 
So, he had determined to found a university in his own 
dominions, and Wittenberg was chosen to be the seat 
of it. 

Wittenberg, which became so famous, not on account 
of its university, but on account of the reputation of one 
of the professors of the institution, was a small town on 
the river Elbe, containing somewhere about four hundred 
low, frame houses. The country around it was sandy 
and stony, and waste barrens might be seen stretching 
far away. The inhabitants of the town were an uncouth 
people, and had no relish for education and refinement. 
The largest building in Wittenberg was the Castle 
church. In the year 1493, the Elector went on a pil- 
grimage to Jerusalem, and brought home with him certain 
relics, the bones of saints, which he had obtained in 



53 



the holy city. These relics were treasured up in the 
Castle church, and exhibited to the people from time to 
time. Many persons went on a pilgrimage to see them, 
and so they were the means of collecting much money. 
A body of ecclesiastical dignitaries was connected with 
the Castle church, the several offices of the Chapter were 
conferred upon the academic professors, and the hope 
was indulged, that the monks of the Order of Augustines 
in Wittenberg might be engaged as teachers. 

The university was founded in the year 1502. The 
first rector was Martin Pollich, of Melchrichstadt, phy- 
sician in ordinary to the Elector, doctor of theology, ju- 
risprudence and medicine, one of the most learned men 
of Germany. The theological faculty, the dean of which 
was Dr. Staupitz, chose St. Paul as their patron saint. 
Wittenberg was not subject to the authoritative control 
of the church as the other universities were. By virtue 
of imperial ordinances, its sovereign protector was the 
Elector of Saxony. 

In addition to Dr. Pollich and Dr. Staupitz, Magister 
Trutvetter, of Erfurt, proved to be a bright ornament of 
the new university. In the year 1504, two young theo- 
logians, Andrew Bodenstein, of Carlstadt, in Franconia, 
and Nicholas von Amsdorf, began their academic course 
at Wittenberg. The number of students in attendance 
in 1508, amounted to one hundred and eighty. It was 
in this year that the university received a new constitu- 
tion and also a new professor, who changed much that 
was old and antiquated into what was fresh and new. 

Late in the autumn of 1508, brother Martin, as yet in 
Erfurt, was ordered by his Prior, Staupitz, to repair to 



54 



Wittenberg without delay; and upon his arrival he was 
at once introduced into the university by Dr. Staupitz 
himself. As he held only the degree of Master, he was 
not authorized to lecture on theology. He began by giv- 
ing instruction in the philosophy of Aristotle, for which, 
however, he had no relish; yet he handled it, because he 
was accustomed to respect the wishes of his superiors. 
In the month of March, 1509, he was made Bachelor of 
Theology, after which he lectured upon the Holy Scrip- 
tures for a whole year. As he continued to reside in 
the monastery, he was still called the monk, brother 
Martin. Here, too, he began to preach in the little 
church of the monastery, which was an old chapel, of 
frame-work and clay, poorly furnished', its dimensions 
twenty by thirty feet, very rickety, propped up on all 
sides, and with a low pulpit made out of unplaned 
boards. Myconius says, that it looked for all the world 
like the pictures which the painters draw of the stable at 
Bethlehem where Christ was born. 

Brother Martin still continued to be as diligent as he 
had ever been at Erfurt, giving himself wholly to study 
at Wittenberg. Aristotle could not answer the question, 
How can a sinner be justified before God? Indee.d, he 
was not asked to answer it. In the Bible Luther had 
already found the declaration, "The just shall live by his 
faith;" and in his heart, he pondered it long. As occu- 
pying the chair of a professor, he made no great preten- 
sions; and yet, his freshness and vigor soon began to 
work with effect. The rector, Pollich, often said, "as to 
the methods of teaching that have hitherto prevailed in 
all the universities, this monk will yet turn them upside 



55 

down." He seemed to read that, in the keen eyes of 
Luther already. 

In the autumn of 1509, brother Martin was called to 
Erfurt, where he remained for eighteen months teaching 
the Dogmas of Peter Lombard, all the while living in 
the monastery according to the rules of his order. In 
the spring of 1511, he returned to Wittenberg, but he was 
not permitted to retain a permanent abode as yet on the 
banks of the Elbe. He had to prepare to set out upon a 
journey that was to affect his entire life, and to have a 
mighty influence upon the whole church itself. 

6. "HOLY ROME." 

A controversy had arisen among the German monas- 
teries of the Augustines. A new arrangement of districts 
had been proposed, to w T hich some of them were unwill- 
ing to submit. The matter was referred for settlement to 
the supreme judicature of the church at the Papal Court. 
The Wittenberg Professor, brother Martin, was commis- 
sioned by his superior to go to Rome and obtain an au- 
thoritative judgment. It was confidently believed that 
he would do everything that might be necessary to shield 
the order against injury. The duty with which he was 
then charged was a very honorable one, and the prospect 
of visiting Rome was very gratifying to himself. From 
his very childhood he had been wont to regard Rome as 
the most holy city of all Christendom. A pilgrimage to 
Rome seemed to him to be a work of extraordinary merit, 
and according to the general opinion of that day a con- 
fession and an absolution in the City of Rome were worth 



56 



a thousand times more than a confession and absolution 
at home. So in the autumn of 1511, brother Martin set 
out upon his journey, accompanied by another monk as 
the rules of the order required. Staupitz had given him 
ten guilders in gold, to secure the services of an advocate 
in Rome, but they had no money for their private ex- 
penses, as they traveled on foot and were supplied with 
food and lodging in associate monasteries on the way. 
Their road to Italy lay through Franconia and Bavaria 
and across the Alps. In about eight weeks they reached 
the City of Rome. 

Brother Martin traveled with his eyes open, and was 
much pleased with what he saw in Italy. He spoke in 
strong terms of the precious fruits of the gardens and the 
vineyards, whilst the olive-orchards reminded him of 
many passages in the Psalms. He was, however, less 
pleased with the Italian people themselves. Their crafti- 
ness and presumption seemed to him to be remarkable. 
Yet, on the contrary, he speaks favorably of their kindly 
disposition towards the poor and the sick, and these two 
German monks were entertained with much generous 
hospitality in the several monasteries which they visited. 
Brother Martin was much shocked at the luxurious life 
of the monks and at the worldly character of their con- 
versation. The nearer he came to Rome, the further did 
the clergy seem to him to be removed from the principles 
of a godly life. He himself faithfully observed the rules 
of his order, and would read Mass whenever an opportu- 
nity offered. But everywhere in the midst of smiling 
fields and sparkling streams, in populous cities and in 
ostentatious churches, the words continued to follow him, 
"The just shall live by his faith." 



57 



At last, the steeples and the towers of the "Eternal 
City" greeted him. He prostrated himself upon the 
ground, lifted up his hands and cried out: "Hail, Holy 




The Pope's Magnificence. 



Rome!" With the reverent spirit of a child upon its 
entering a church for the first time, he passed through 
the gate of the city, and went for lodging to the monas- 



58 



tery of the Augustines. His business at the Papal Court 
was soon settled, the proceedings at law had been wisely 
arranged, and so he had sufficient leisure to move about 
through the city. For weeks, sometimes indeed at the 
peril of his life, he passed around amid the mighty ruins 
of ancient Rome's imperial glory. His visits to the Col- 
osseum, so immense in its proportions, and to the mag- 
nificent baths of Diocletian with their grand aqueducts, 
were frequent and long. His favorite places of resort, 
however, were those that had some connection with the 
history of the ancient Christian Church. Among these 
was the Church of St. Calixtus, where the bodies of many 
thousands of saints, and the remains of more than forty 
popes were carefully laid away. As a pious monk having 
a believing spirit, he went through all the acts and ex- 
ercises that were required to be done at the many holy 
places in Rome, and the observance of which was held to 
be a meritorious work in the highest degree. In front 
of the chapel of All Saints he worked himself up on his 
knees until he had mounted twenty-eight steps of the holy 
stairs, which, as the story had it, once stood in front of 
Pilate's Judgment Hall in Jerusalem; for the Popes had 
promised nine years absolution for the mounting of every 
single one of the steps. He read Mass very often, not 
only for his own good, but also for the benefit of others. 
Yet, even in Rome, in the midst of all his meritorious 
works, performed with such earnestness of heart, and 
most of all, upon Pilate's stair-case, the words kept ring- 
ing in his soul, "The just shall live by his faith." 

The pious German monk had occasion to notice every 
day that the abomination of sin was as mighty even in 



59 



the "holy, eternal" city as it had once been in Sodom 
and Gomorrah. The priests, with very few exceptions, 
were a lazy and lascivious herd. Not only whilst feast- 
ing and indulging the humors of drunkenness, but even 
whilst ministering at the altar, their language was often 
most lewd and blasphemous. Whilst passing along the 
highways they showed no respect for their cloth, perpe- 
trating their abominations openly like the heathen and 
the beasts. Men of the highest rank were the greatest 
offenders. The possessions and privileges of the church, 
like common wares, were bought up at public sale, and 
the man who would venture to express his disapproba- 
tion of all this was sure to be set down as a fool. The 
Romans themselves had this proverb: "If there is a hell, 
Rome is right over it." What proved to be most shock- 
ing to the pure-minded German monk was the scandalous 
things that were related about the Popes themselves. 
The grave of the female Pope Johanna and that of her 
child were. pointed out to him. He heard things said 
about the last Pope, Alexander, that made his 'flesh run 
cold; the vicar of Christ on earth guilty of incest! The 
Pope who was then occupying the chair, Julius II, was a 
soldier and a politician, without heart, without any sym- 
pathy for spiritual things. His object in becoming Pope 
was only to amass glory and gold. 

When brother Martin at last took his departure, he 
did not say, farewell, holy Rome ! No, but in great sad- 
ness of spirit he turned his back upon the city that was 
built over the abyss of hell. In later years he was wont 
to say, that he would not for a great sum of money have 
failed to see the city of Rome. 



60 

Upon his return he passed through Augsburg. 
Whilst he tarried there he was taken to see a young 
woman named Ursula, who pretended to be living with- 
out eating and drinking, and whom Princes had hon- 
ored with many costly gifts. Luther, who had learned 
much in Eome, asked her if she would not rather die? 
But she answered, No ! for she knew how matters are in 
this world, but did not know how they would be in the 
other world. To this, Luther replied with much ear- 
nestness: Ursula, take good care that matters go well 
with you. Shortly afterwards her deceptions were found 
out; and the delusions of another Ursula, Rome herself, 
were found out in like manner. 

7. DOCTOR OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 

Upon his return to Wittenberg, brother Martin did 
not, at once, resume his lectures at the university. He 
had divers matters to attend to at the monastery, such 
as preaching and giving the needful instruction to the 
novices. Dr. Staupitz, who loved him sincerely, called 
upon him in September, 1512, and requested him to ac- 
company him into the garden. There, whilst sitting to- 
gether under a pear tree, Staupitz stated to his young 
friend, that he wished to obtain his consent to be ad- 
vanced to the degree of Doctor of Theology. To this, 
Martin had strong objections. He felt that he was too 
young for this, the highest of academical honors, and 
that he was physically too feeble to undertake any addi- 
tional labor. Within a few months he would be com- 
pletely exhausted and ready to die. "Dr. Staupitz," 






61 




Luther receiving the Degree of Doctor of Theology. 



said he, "you will take my life." Staupitz answered, 
playfully, " Well, what of that? The Lord God has great 
works on hand, and He employs wise spirits in His ser- 



62 



vice above; so, if you should die, you would have to ren- 
der Him your services there." Then out of the spirit of 
obedience Martin yielded his consent. 

He was advanced to the degree of Doctor, October 
18th, and the Elector who had heard him preach and was 
much interested in his discourses, defrayed the expense 
of the ceremony. According to academic rule, a new 
doctor was required at the time of receiving his degree, 
to lay down certain theses and to deliver an oration. 
At the same time he had to obligate himself upon the 
Holy Scriptures, not to teach any vain and offensive doc- 
trine. In testimony of his high rank he received a cap, 
the honorable badge of a free man, and a ring, the sym- 
bol of his official obligation and dignity. The ring given 
to Luther at this time is still in existence. It is a heavy 
gold circle, mounted with a silver, heart-shaped shield, 
on which there are three rings linked together, sym- 
bolizing the Holy Trinity. 

So, Luther is now, regular Professor of Theology; and 
in a short time, in consequence of the death of Dr. Pol- 
lich and the resignation of Trutvetter, he became the 
first and the most distinguished professor of the Theo- 
logical Faculty. Dr. Staupitz took up his abode else- 
where. Luther's friend, Link, was associated with him 
as teacher, and at the same time was Prior of the monas- 
tery at Wittenberg, whilst George Spalatin, another of 
his Erfurt friends, often sojourned for a while at Witten- 
berg. Two princes, nephews of the Elector, were sent 
here to study under his superintendence; and he secured 
the confidence of the Elector so largely, that his princely 
Grace honored him with the appointment of Court Chap- 



63 



lain and private secretary. Although his residence in 
Wittenberg was subject to interruptions, he nevertheless 
kept up a continuous correspondence with his friends 
there, amongst whom Lange also is to be counted, who 
joined the Theological Faculty in 1515. Many persons, 
members of Doctor Martin's Order, visited the univer- 
sity and secured its academic honors. 

In the monastery at Erfurt, the chief subject of Luther's 
study had been the Bible; and this turned out to be of 
great advantage to him at the University of Wittenberg. 
His whole reading now referred only to the sacred books, 
and he based his teachings upon the Holy Scriptures 
alone. Aristotle was put aside altogether, for Martin 
wanted to be a real doctor of the Holy Scriptures. He 
began with lecturing upon the Psalms, and then han- 
dled the Epistle to the Romans, and then, that to the 
Galatians. From his youth up he had had a special 
fondness for the Psalms. It had long been customary 
to sing them in the church, and their language was 
quite familiar to him. There were many things related 
in the Psalms which he had, himself, experienced; they 
were indeed, a mirror, that reflected his own inner life; 
and how did his heart rejoice to find there so many 
prophecies concerning Christ! His own writings teach 
us how he lived and moved in the Psalms. He studied 
and wrote upon the Epistle to the Romans, for his own 
good first, before he undertook to explain it to others. 
The words of the Prophet, Hab. 2: 4, which had accom- 
panied him to Rome, now began to ring so much clearer 
in his soul ; now he began to experience what was meant 
by the saying, "The just shall live by his faith;" now he 



64 



understood the difference between the law and the gospel. 
Accordingly, he began to testify against the heresy that 
men can be delivered from their sins and justified before 
God by their own works. In a word, he began to preach 
Christ. 

Yet, the Doctor still continued to be a learner. He 
began to give great attention to the study of Greek, in 
order that he might read the original text of the New 
Testament correctly; and in like manner did he prose- 
cute the study of the Hebrew language. In addition to 
the Holy Scriptures, he was much occupied in studying 
the works of Augustine, the greatest of the old church 
fathers, who had taught so mightily, according to the 
Scriptures, concerning sin and concerning man's corrupt 
nature, and concerning the counsels of the grace of God. 
As Doctor Martinus had thus become acquainted with 
an African bishop already, and derived spiritual strength 
from him, the time had now come in which a German, 
who had himself been taught of God, should approach 
him and prove to be dear to his heart. The writings of 
John Tauler, so thoroughly pervaded by the Spirit of God, 
and so full of the joys of faith came into his hands, and 
he could never grow weary of reading them. He pub- 
lished an edition of what is, perhaps, the most valua- 
ble of Tauler's writings, under the title, " German 
Theology, that is, a precious gem, showing clearly what 
Adam is and what Christ is." In connection with this 
he expressed much satisfaction, that in the midst of his 
continual Latin reading and study he found that Tauler 
wrote in such a noble and simple German style. 

It was not the wish of Doctor Martin that his hearers 



65 

should be learned hermits, but that they should be use- 
ful and efficient men their whole life long. He no more 
felt any of his former dread of entering the pulpit ; on 
the contrary, he felt within his heart a powerful pressure 
urging him boldly to preach the gospel. So, he began 
to preach in the parish church in Wittenberg; and the 
people attended his preaching in such numbers that the 
town council appointed him to be the regular preacher. 
The first of his sermons that was printed was preached 
on St. Martin's day, 1515, and treats of the right way to 
read the Holy Scriptures. In the summer of 1516, he 
preached upon the ten commandments. In the spring 
of 1517, he wrote his first book, which was an exposition 
of the seven penitential Psalms. At the same time he 
preached upon the Lord's prayer. 

Such was the preaching of Doctor Martin that it could 
not otherwise than attract attention. There never had 
been such a preacher in Wittenberg, so zealous, so ad- 
mirably suited to the people. The people enjoyed his 
sermons and were never tired of listening to him ; for he 
preached like the Master, as one having authority, and 
not as the Scribes. There were some, however, who 
murmured, because he spoke with such penetrating force, 
and gave so little credit to themselves and to other 
saints, who were justifying themselves by their own 
works. 

In the spring of 1516, Dr. Staupitz, by order of the 
Elector, set out upon a journey to the lower Rhine. He 
appointed Doctor Martin as his substitute during his ab- 
sence, and charged him, especially, with the duty of 
visiting the monasteries in Saxony and in Thuringia. 



ee 



Doctor Martin began these visits of inspection at once ; 
and this, together with his work at Wittenberg, kept 
him very busy. The economy of the monasteries, their 
financial administration, their discipline, their courses 
of study, the maintenance of good order, the official de- 
portment of the clergy, and many other matters required 
his notice and demanded his serious consideration. He 
well knew how to admonish the brethren who had erred, 
and how to recover those who had fallen; but indolent 
monks were his abhorrence. He once wrote to a con- 
ference which the monks were holding: "I adjure you, 
be diligent and faithful in the instruction of the young. 
This is the first and most important subject that claims 
the attention of your conference." To his friend, Lange, 
he gave an account of his work, as follows: "I employ 
two secretaries, and do scarcely anything day and night 
but write letters. I am preacher of the monastery; I 
preach in the refectory; they want me to preach every 
day in the parish church. I superintend the studies of 
the monks; I am Vicar of the Order, which is about 
eleven times as arduous as being Prior. I lecture upon 
the Epistles of Paul, also upon the Psalms. In addition 
to this I have to write many letters. You see what an 
indolent creature I am." 

In the autumn of 1516, the plague broke out at Wit- 
tenberg, whereupon he began to make preparation for 
sending the brethren off to healthier quarters. He would 
not himself leave Wittenberg, for he said: "I have been 
posted here, I dare not go away until that power 
which now requires me to remain shall order me to de- 
part. I hope that the world will not come to an end 
even if brother Martin should be a victim of the plague." 



G7 

The Doctor's multifarious engagements, so unusual in 
his day, were the occasion of much anxiety to his friends. 
The boldness of his discourse, in the pulpit and in the 
chair of the professor, called forth an array of conflicting 
opinions. Many were offended at him and cried him 
down as a turbulent dogmatist, who was too conceited. 
Outside of Wittenberg the testimony was not all in 
his favor. The learned scholars of Erfurt and of Leipsic 
could not endure it, that a young professor in the new 
university of Wittenberg, should speak in such con- 
temptuous terms of the great master, Aristotle, and 
should take his stand upon nothing but the Bible. On 
the other hand the Elector was well pleased with the 
Doctor, and sent him many a gift by the hands of Spa- 
latin. Staupitz too, was highly pleased, and encouraged 
him to keep on diligently writing books, an undertaking 
in which he himself was deeply engaged. The Doctor 
had warm friends in Niirenberg; among them were 
Scheurl, his fellow student at Erfurt, and the preacher, 
Link. It is worthy of special notice, that Doctor John 
Eck, who afterwards was Luther's great opponent, sought, 
at that time to make the acquaintance of "the Right 
Reverend Doctor." His bitterest opponent was Emser, 
a professor at Erfurt, who met Martin and engaged in a 
controversy with him at Dresden. Afterwards, he un- 
dertook to revile him as an ignoramus because he pre- 
ferred to use his own German mother-tongue, instead of 
Latin, the speech of the learned. 



IV. 

8. INDULGENCE AND THE THESES. 




HEODOBE, Archbishop of Canterbury in 
England, in the year 668, one hun- 
dred years before the beginning of 
the reign of Charlemagne, the first 
German Emperor, imposed what may 
be called a tax for sin, according to 
which those persons who had com- 
mitted any sin might be released 
from suffering the punishment de- 
creed by the church, upon their pay- 
ing a certain amount of money. It followed from this 
that absolution, remission from the punishment of sin, 
needed not to be sought by expiation, for money would 

(68) 



69 



accomplish everything. In the year 1300, Pope Boniface 
VIII, decreed that the whole human family was subject 
to the Pope of Rome. In the spirit of this assumption 
he commanded the whole world to make a pilgrimage to 
Pome during that year. Whoever should so come was 
assured that he should obtain remission of the punish- 
ment of sin as long as he lived, provided he would make 
an offering to the Pope. Boniface, who was not distin- 
guished as a benefactor of his race, received much money 
thereby. There was not one of the Roman Bishops who 
rose up to protest against this disgraceful transaction. 
Thomas Aquinas, a great Doctor of the Church, who died 
a short time before, had even justified this remission or 
indulgence in a writing which was approved of by the 
Church Council at the City of Lyons. The priests taught 
the people that indulgence was a wholesome arrange- 
ment and calculated to help in saving souls, and the 
people imbibed these teachings, and so kept on living 
and dying, ever maintaining their recklessness and in- 
difference. Even when the priests spoke of indulgence 
as being only a remission of temporal punishment, the 
people would interpret it to include eternal punishment 
as well. Pope Boniface IX began to offer indulgences 
in other places besides Rome; and so if a man would 
give to the church, at his own home, the sum of money 
that a pilgrimage to Rome would cost him, he too 
might obtain a complete indulgence. Peddlers of indul- 
gences were sent off through all countries offering their 
wares at public sale. This was the atrocious way in 
which the precious doctrine of the forgiveness of sins, 
through the administration of the office of the Keys, in 



70 



the Name of Christ, came to be perverted, the House of 
God turned into a peddler's booth, and the Altar of the 
Most Holy made the desk of a money-dealer. 

In the year 1513, Leo X, became Pope. He was a 
prince of fine training, a lover of art, but he was a 
heathen. He had a keener relish for the marble images 
of Venus and Apollo than for the statues of the saints. 
The high lords and the beautiful women of his court 
were wont to indulge in all kinds of sport and jests, and 
Leo himself joined in with them because he had to. 
Upon the whole he considered the church to be a lucra- 
tive business, for he was in the habit of saying: "This 
fable about Christ brings in a great deal of money." 
With a gratified, but at the same time with a sneering air 
he would laugh at the German pack-horses wearily bear- 
ing the heavy sacks of pure gold across the Alps to Rome. 
Indeed, he had need of much rnone}'. He levied a tithe 
upon Christendom for the purpose of carrying on war 
against the Turks, but the money that came in found its 
way into the pocket of his sister. His ambition was as 
towering as his covetousness. About the spiritual temple 
he concerned himself very little, but he would rear a 
temple made with hands, the fame of which should be 
spread abroad even in the remotest ages. His predecessor, 
the stern soldier, Julius II, had begun the erection of St. 
Peter's Church at Rome, and it was the purpose of Leo to 
finish it under his own administration.. To this end 
money, and in large sums, was necessary. Accordingly, 
he proclaimed a general, an extraordinary and a gracious 
indulgence. Every Christian was summoned to take part 
in it, for its object was to prepare for the bones of the 






71 



Apostles and of other saints a place of repose that should 
be worthy of them. 

Albrecht, the Elector and Archbishop of Mayence, un- 
dertook to carry on the business of indulgence in Middle 
Germany. He was like the Pope himself in many re- 
spects, most of all in his love of money. Being himself 
deeply involved in debt, he fondly hoped to secure a 
large revenue out of this business for his own part. So 
he appointed commissioners and instructed them to pro- 
claim to the people that this great indulgence, now pub- 
lished, consisted of four distinct blessings: the first was 
perfect forgiveness of sin and deliverance from purgatory; 
the second, a letter of confession that would permit the 
holder to select any confessor he might prefer, and who 
would be bound by the letter, to absolve him from his 
offences; the third consisted of a share in the superabun- 
dant merits of the church, and the fourth secured for the 
souls of the dead who are suffering in purgatory the full 
forgiveness of their sins. The commissioners went to 
work briskly. The busiest among them all was John 
Tetzel, a Dominican monk, who had had some experience 
in the indulgence trade, and was no novice in works of 
iniquity. For the crime of adultery he came very near 
being put to death by drowning. For audaciousness he 
could not find his match, and he passed along from coun- 
try to country with the air of an ambassador from heaven. 
Whenever he drew nigh to a town the clergy and the 
town-council would go forth to meet him, singing as they 
moved along ; bells were rung and the music of the or- 
gans was heard. Upon entering a church he would fix 
up a high, red cross, bearing the Pope's coat of arms, and 



72 



there he would stand day after day extolling his wares. 
Every soul who had made confession and submissively 




Tetzel Proclaiming Indulgence. 

thrown his money into the box should have complete 
forgiveness of all his sins. If a man wished to do a favor 



73 



to the dead it was not necessary to do more than the 
Archbishop himself had said: as soon as the money 
falls into the box, so soon does the soul leap out of the 
flames of purgatory into heaven. As a speaker, Tetzel 
had popular talents, and understood the art of interlard- 
ing his discourse with all kinds of stories and compari- 
sons. To his own reproach, he almost invariably intro- 
duced matters of a low and disgusting kind. In the 
autumn of 1517, he came into the neighborhood of Wit- 
tenberg. Here too, as elsewhere he sold grace for gold 
on the best terms he could get and with all his might. 
He extolled the efficacy of the indulgence cross, and said 
that it equalled that of the cross of Christ; he represented 
himself also as having the advantage of the Apostle Peter, 
because he had saved more souls by his indulgence than 
Peter had by his preaching. The people traveled miles 
to hear him, and the Wittenbergers went a whole day's 
journey to Jiiterbok where he was. 

But there was one man in Wittenberg who would 
never go with them. This was not the first time that 
Luther, the Augustinian, felt constrained as Doctor of 
the Holy Scriptures and preacher in the parish church, 
to testify against indulgence. He had already done this 
in his preaching in the year 1516. His sermon had dis- 
pleased the Elector, for his Castle Church with all its 
wealth of the bones of saints had been a noted place of 
pilgrimage, and had obtained much money through in- 
dulgence. But Luther, as devoted to the service of truth, 
had no respect of persons. The news of Tetzel's opera- 
tions reached Luther in the confessional. As he refused 
to give absolution to those persons who, though making 



74 

confession, were yet unwilling to forsake their sins of 
lewdness, of dishonesty, etc., they thrust their indulgences 
into his face, and running off to Tetzel began to com- 
plain against Luther. 

Then he began to write, and we may well add, impelled 
by the Holy Ghost. He said afterwards, in referring to 
this: "When I began to write I said to God, in deep sin- 
cerity, that if it was at all His purpose to use me in be- 
ginning a game, He should be sure to direct it Himself, 
and by all means should keep me, that is my own wis- 
dom, from getting mixed up in it." 

The consecration of the Castle Church at Wittenberg 
was celebrated on All-Saint's day, November 1st. It was 
customary to honor the festivals of the church with aca- 
demic exercises, and to post the notices of any learned 
exhibitions intended for the occasion upon the church 
doors. On this festival of the consecration it had been 
intended to exhibit the relics and to dispense indul- 
gences to the devout. Now, it was not only against the 
mischief perpetrated by Tetzel, but also in opposition to 
that domestic usage which had brought in such large 
sums of money for the church and for the University of 
the Elector, that Luther came forth with such heroic 
courage. 

The exercises of the festival began at noon on October 
31st, 1517. Before the services of the afternoon had be- 
gun, Luther nailed a large sheet of paper, written from 
top to bottom, on the door of the church. Then he calmly 
entered the church and preached a sermon adapted to 
the occasion. He discussed the history of Zaccheus; and 
in the course of his sermon he said that Christ should be 



75 



all in all to us, and that to those to whom Christ is any- 
thing, everything else is nothing. The celebration of the 




Ltjther Nails his 95 Theses on the Church Door. 
consecration of the church should not end with that fact 
alone; it should lead to a consecration of the heart to God. 



76 



Whilst he was in the pulpit proclaiming the free grace 
of God, a crowd, steadily increasing, of persons connected 
with the university, stood before the church door, and 
read, first with curiosity and then with growing astonish- 
ment, what they found there written. The title or in- 
scription ran thus : " Disputation of Doctor Martin Luther, 
in explanation of the efficacy of indulgence ; out of love 
for the truth, and with a pure desire to bring it to light. 
What here follows will be discussed at Wittenberg, un- 
der the direction of the Reverend Father, Martin Luther, 
Master of the Liberal Arts and of Theology, and regular 
professor of the same. He begs, at the same time, that 
those persons who may not be able to join us in this dis- 
cussion by their personal presence may be pleased to do 
so, in their absence, by writing. In the Name of our 
Lord Jesus Christ. Amen." Then followed ninety-five 
Theses, propositions to be discussed by the learned. The 
first Thesis read thus : " When our Lord and Master Jesus 
Christ says ' repent, etc.,' he means that the whole life of 
believers should be a repentance." That same summons 
"repent and be converted," with which our Lord and 
Saviour began His work, that same summons began the 
conflict of the Reformation. Because indulgence had 
completely obliterated the meaning of the change of 
heart wrought in repentance, and altogether destroyed 
the fear of God, therefore, the first sixty Theses were di- 
rected against indulgence. The sixty-second Thesis reads 
thus : " The true treasure of the church is the most holy 
gospel of the glory and the grace of God;" sixty-third: 
" This treasure is, as might be expected, the most hateful, 
because, out of the first it makes the last ;" sixty-fourth : 



77 



" The treasure of indulgence, however, is, as might be ex- 
pected, the most acceptable, because, out of the last it 
makes the first." Towards the end of the Theses, Luther 
undertakes to shield the Pope against the scandals that 
were occasioned by the wild harangues of the indulgence 
peddlers. At the conclusion, he repeats his notice of the 
great danger that attaches to indulgence, namely: carnal 
security and a flying from the wholesome sorrows of re- 
pentance. From beginning to end he introduces no doc- 
trines of man's devising, since for him, in all the ninety- 
five Theses, the authority of the Lord and Master was 
enough. 

Martin Luther began the conflict in the Name of his 
Lord and Master Jesus Christ. He expected that con- 
tradiction and confusion would follow, and he was pre- 
pared for them. Yet, he had not anticipated that within 
two weeks printed copies of his Theses would be scattered 
over the whole of Germany. A contemporary writer 
says, that "within four weeks they had been spread over 
nearly the whole of Christendom, as if angels themselves 
had been the messengers." Luther was startled upon 
discovering what a circulation they had obtained, for he 
had prepared them only for the circle of learned men. 
But now they came to be read by citizens in towns and 
peasants in the country. The reception they met was 
diversified. Friends, at a distance, rejoiced at their ap- 
pearance, and greeted their author as the herald of a 
new age that had long been desired. Those who were 
nearest to him were not especially edified. The brothers 
of his monastery were afraid of bad results, and begged 
him not to bring their Order into disgrace. They 



78 



thought they could see the stake already erected for the 
burning of the heretic. The people of Erfurt, always 
unfriendly, judged him harshly, and reproached him for 
his audacity. The views entertained by those who were 
more favorably disposed were thus stated to Luther in a 
letter written by Albert Krantz, a theologian of Ham- 
burg: "You are telling the truth, my dear brother, but 
you will accomplish nothing. Go into your cell and cry 
out, 'God have mercy upon me!'" 

No one appeared to take part in the disputation about 
the ninety-five Theses. The teachers in the university, his 
colleagues, maintained a prudent bearing. At first, he 
was faint-hearted himself, but he soon showed the courage 
of a hero. To his brothers of the monastery, who were 
quite anxious, he said, "if it has not been undertaken in 
the Name of God it will soon come to nought, but if it 
has been begun in His Name, then let God Himself carry 
it on." Sometimes he would, significantly, subscribe his 
letters, "Martinus Eleutheros," L e., Martin the Liberal. 
It had been his intention to publish an exposition of his 
Theses under the title " Indulgence and Grace," but the 
Bishop of Brandenburg, who was his friend, advised de- 
lay, and admonished him not to attack the power of the 
church lest he might get into trouble. 

John Tetzel, finding unexpected pleasure in the prose- 
cution of this vile business, was not idle, as may be sup- 
posed. He wanted to give tit for tat, and to issue a set 
of counter-theses. So he managed very soon, to have 
himself proclaimed Doctor of Theology, at Frankfort on 
the Oder; and then, with the help of Professor Wimpina, 
an enemy of the Wittenbergers, this new-fledged doctor 



79 



drew up his Theses. They lug in the infallibility of the 
Pope, and puff him up as being superior to the Word of 
God. When a young monk undertook to contradict 
Tetzel, he was punished with confinement in the prison 
of a monastery. The Dominicans, to which order Tetzel 
belonged, held a general meeting for his encouragement. 
But they could hardly avoid doing so, for Thomas Aqui- . 
nas, the formulator of the doctrine of indulgence and of 
the supreme authority of the Pope, was himself a 
Dominican. 

The transactions of this meeting of the Dominicans did 
not give Luther much trouble. He was startled, how- 
ever, by the arrival about the same time of an answer, 
adverse to his Theses, from Rome, for he still believed in 
the Pope, and he had expected a favorable response. 
At first, Leo X took little notice of the Theses, and his 
courtiers were surprised at his coolness, especially, be- 
cause the affair threatened to be so damaging to the Ro- 
man Exchequer'. The Pope himself considered that 
brother Martin had " a good head," and looked upon the 
whole affair as an envious quarrel among the monks. 
In the loftiness of his exaltation he allowed himself to 
float gracefully upon the clouds of incense which his 
devotees kept rising up about him; for he had skilfully 
succeeded in having a council composed of Italian Bishops 
to proclaim him sovereign of the whole world, even "a 
god upon the earth." However, the theologians of the 
Court of Leo X undertook, with the greatest zeal to do, 
what the Pope thought to be beneath his dignity. Silves- 
ter Prierias, a venerable and learned Dominican, had 
been appointed Censor for all books that were published 



80 



within the Roman dominions, and also Judge of what- 
ever concerned the Christian faith. This man now felt 
himself bound to furnish the Pope with a keen lance. 
In three days he drew up a document in which he con- 
tended that, the holiness of the Pope was unassailable 
and his decrees infallible, at the same time condemning 
the Theses of Luther as the audacious assault of a heretic. 
Prierias absolutely, asserted that the Pope himself was 
the church ; that the church could not err, consequently, 
the Pope could not err. The Pope, he said, dispensed 
indulgence, and whoever spoke against this was a heretic 
and must be silenced. The language of the distinguished 
courtier in this, his writing, was of a kind so low and so 
gross, that whatever happened to be said on the German 
side, in violation of good taste, during the heat of the 
conflict in after years, may be regarded as making some 
approach towards it. Prierias concluded his prize essay 
by saying, in the genuine spirit of Rome, that if the Pope 
would confer a fat bishopric upon this German monk, he 
would certainly be very prompt and eloquent in preach- 
ing in favor of indulgence. This writing of Prierias 
took effect at once. Pope Leo issued a command to the 
general of the Augustine Order to silence the monk, 
Luther; and by "silence" Rome meant imprisonment 
for life, or burning at the stake. 

Luther very well understood the seriousness of the 
situation. The offensive language of the Prior was far 
less mortifying to him than was the discovery that the 
Pope himself was not accessible to the truth. He found 
that he was condemned as a heretic, unheard ; and now 
he saw that a violent struggle with Rome was unavoida- 



81 



ble. So he began to strengthen himself in his God and 
Saviour. The Psalms became more and more precious 
to him, and he published an exposition of Psalm 110, 
under the title " A Prophecy Concerning Christ, the King 
and the High Priest." His sermon upon "Indulgence 
and Grace" and a discussion of "Repentance" in the 
Latin language, also appeared in print. He took ad- 
vantage, too, of his prominent position as first professor 
of a most distinguished faculty, to introduce an enlarge- 
ment in the studies of the university. His friend, Lange, 
was appointed Vicar of the Order, and this afforded him 
more leisure for his own work and more freedom in his 
relation to the Order itself. 

What Prierias had written and published was the oc- 
casion of the appearance of a second publication, one 
which was, if possible, still more odious. John Eck, Pro- 
fessor at Ingolstadt, really a learned and eloquent man, 
shot off his poisoned darts against the Wittenberger in a 
book under the title "Obelisks." This attack Luther 
felt in his heart; for Eck had sought to cultivate his 
friendship only a short time before. Yet he did not 
reply at once. 

A journey to the fair city of Heidelberg on the Neckar, 
in the spring of 1518, was a recreation to the busy doctor. 
A meeting of the German Order of Augustines was to be 
held there, for the purpose of confirming the election of 
the Italian, Gabriel Yenetus, who had been nominated 
by the Pope as General of the Order. This man was not 
acceptable to the Germans, and they knew that he was 
not kindly disposed towards them. He was elected after- 
wards by a majority of Italians, and he helped to poke 



82 



the fire in Rome. Luther, being a poor monk, traveled 
on foot. The Elector, unsolicited, had given him letters 
of recommendation to the Bishop of Wurtzburg and to 
the Elector, Palatine. He also instructed Dr. Staupitz to 
take care that the movements of Luther should not be 
hindered anywhere, for he did not want him to be kept 
away from the university. The Bishop of Wiirtzburg 
gave the traveler a friendly welcome; and although he 
was a Roman Bishop, nevertheless he was both Christian 
and German enough to write to the Elector of Saxony in 
reply, that he would take good care of the pious man, 
Doctor Martin, and see that no harm should be done him. 
The Elector, Palatine Wolfgang, whose residence was in 
Heidelberg, showed him marked respect, and offered to 
render him any assistance that might be necessary. 
After the meeting had adjourned, Luther had to present 
and enforce, in a public disputation, the chief articles of 
the Biblical and Augustinian Theology, which he had 
been teaching for several years. He did this with such 
moderation and aptness, that even the Professors of the 
University of Heidelberg themselves, though they were 
not specially favorable to him, could not withhold their 
respectful recognition. The most deeply interested 
hearers at this disputation were four young men, who in 
after years, proved to be efficient laborers in the harvest. 
These were John Brenz, the leader of the Swabian Reform- 
ers, and his assistant Erhard Schnepf, Theodore Villicanus, 
the Reformer of Nordlingen, and Martin Bucer, of Stras- 
burg. The impression which Luther made upon these 
four men at this time was indelible. The Count Pala- 
tine, too, informed the Elector that Doctor Martinus had 



83 



done his native university no little honor, and that great 
credit had been accorded to him by the most distin- 
guished scholars. According to the arrangement of his 
superiors, Luther traveled home to Wittenberg by coach. 
In Eisleben and Erfurt, his old friends were glad to see 
him ; and in due time, refreshed in soul and body, he 
reached Wittenberg in safety. 

Again, he took hold of his work with vigor. He 
finished his extended explanation of the 95 Theses and 
addressed it to the Pope. In the course of it, he gives the 
Pope a lecture upon Christianity as taught in the Bible, 
and upon church history, a lecture which might have 
filled any other than the Pope with astonishment at its 
learning and versatility of argument, and thoroughly 
convinced him of the heresies of Rome. In concluding 
his explanation, Luther says : " The church has stood in 
need of a reformation which is not the work of man, nor 
of the Pope, nor of assembled Cardinals, as the last Coun- 
cil of the Lateran in 1517, has made plain, but the busi- 
ness of the entire Christian world; yes, the work of God 
alone. As to the time for the reformation, however, 
that is known only to Him by whom the times are 
created." 

During Luther's sojourn at Heidelberg, the boisterous 
Professor Carlstadt, undertook to defend the cause of his 
colleague against the attack of Eck. Lie drew up a long 
list of Theses, the first of which reads thus : " The text of 
the Holy Scripture is not laid down only for one teacher 
of the church, or for several of them, but as a rule for the 
authority of the whole church." Eck endeavored to ex- 
cuse himself for the attack he had made, and Luther 



84 



published a reply which could not be very acceptable to 
his opponent. Tetzel, too, had a hankering ^to have 
another quarrel with Luther; but he fared badly, for his 
boorish audacity met the treatment it deserved. Hoog- 
straten, who was notorious for his inquisitorial proceed- 
ings in Cologne, threatened blood, and appealed to the 
Pope to order Luther to be burned at the stake. Luther 
rebuked him in fitting terms as a blood-thirsty wretch, 
who if he could, would turn Pope Leo into a raging lion. 
Everything looked as if Luther was sure to be cast into 
the lion's den. But the God of Daniel still lived on. 



9. JUDICIAL EXAMINATION IN AUGSBURG. 

Already, before the Pope had received Luther's expla- 
nation of his Theses, he had instituted proceedings 
against him on the charge of heresy. Three Roman Pre- 
lates, one of whom was his enemy Prierias, were appointed 
as impartial judges of the case. On August 7th, 1518, Lu- 
ther was summoned to appear at Rome within 60 days. 
But, for months before this, measures had been taken to 
make sure of him. Whilst Luther had been traveling 
from Heidelberg to Wittenberg, Thomas Vio von Gseta, 
otherwise called Cajetan, came from Rome to Augsburg. 
He was commissioned by the Pope to persuade the Ger- 
man Emperor, the King of Sweden and the King of 
Denmark, to make war against the Turks, and to induce 
the Emperor of Germany to clear out the poison of heresy 
from all his dominions. Cajetan was the right man for 
this business; for at the late council he had declared 
that the church was the natural born servant of the 
Pope. 



85 



In the summer of 1517, a large German Diet met in 
Augsburg, under the old Emperor, Maximilian, the in- 
tention being to make arrangements for another Turkish 
war, and to raise funds for carrying it on. 

Many princes, however, were not in favor of this, be- 
cause they had no confidence in the treasurer at Rome. 
Cajetan entered Augsburg with royal pomp. He was the 
bearer of a cardinal's hat for the Elector of Mayence, the 
head manager of the indulgence business in Germany. 
On the very first day he poured the affair of the Luth- 
eran heresy into the ears of the Emperor, but Maximilian 
himself had read Luther's Theses with inward satisfac- 
tion. True, he was of very fickle disposition, and could 
not take a decided stand either for or against anything, 
for which reason his administration was not a successful 
one. However, as to the present business, he had made 
up his mind not to deliver the German monk into the 
claws of the Roman lion. He put off the Cardinal from 
day to day, and advised the Elector of Saxony to take 
good care of the monk, for he might yet prove to be very 
useful. The Elector himself tried to keep the Cardinal 
quiet. He even wrote to the Pope, and requested him to 
refer the whole affair to the authority of a German Judi- 
cature. Luther, on behalf of the university, had made 
the same request of the Elector, to-wit: that the Elector 
should prevail upon the Emperor to submit the case to 
German judges, for he saw very clearly what dangerous 
snares they were now setting for his life. 

Luther made no sign, either of fear or of surrender. 
He wrote a book, keen and acute, in answer to Prierias, 
in which he maintained, in opposition to Prierias, that 



86 



he recognized the church, not in the Pope, but in Christ; 
and that not only the Pope could err, but even councils 
too. He holds the writers of the Holy Scriptures alone 
to be infallible and above error, but not the church 
fathers. This book made an extraordinary excitement; 
and a sermon upon Excommunication, calmly as it was 
delivered, roused the adherents of the Pope into a storm. 
So far was Luther from being alarmed, that he declares 
himself ready to prove, that there were people in Ger- 
many who were well aware of the crafty tricks and 
knavery of Rome. 

In the midst of all his severe conflicts, Luther never 
neglected in the least the duties of his official position at 
the university, and in the church of the parish. Much 
rather did he desire to do even more in these depart- 
ments of his work. The mass of young men studying 
at the university diligently attended his biblical lectures; 
and he wrote once to a friend that, at Wittenberg, the 
course of study was pursued with a burning zeal, and the 
students were as busy as ants. A zealous interest in 
biblical studies infected the students of the university of 
Leipsic also. A desire that he had long cherished, to 
have a competent teacher of the Greek language near 
him, now came to .be most happily fulfilled. Philip Mel- 
ancMhoii, looking like a little school-boy, timid, retiring, 
and yet of such astonishing scholarship, so apt to teach, 
came to Wittenberg about the end of August, and as 
academic teacher, began a work which was to have such 
an important influence upon Luther and upon the church. 
In his oration, delivered upon his induction into office, 
he spoke, to the joyful surprise of Luther, concerning the 



87 



corruptions of the scholastic philosophy, and concerning 
the importance of the study of the learned languages for 
the sake of the Holy Scriptures. He gave extra lectures 




Philip Melanchton. 



upon Homer, the Grecian poet, and also upon St. Paul's 
Epistle to Titus. Luther was his first pupil, for he de- 



88 



sired the help of Melanchthon for the purpose of advanc- 
ing his knowledge of Greek. 

Meanwhile, the Elector endeavored to prevail upon 
Cajetan to agree that the judicial examination of Luther 
should be made within German territory. To this the 
Pope would by no means consent. In a letter addressed 
to the Elector, he called Luther a child of iniquity, and 
insisted that he should be delivered up to Kome. Finally, 
however, he showed signs of relenting, for he did not 
want to lose his influence with the most powerful of the 
German Princes. Cajetan then took the hint and gave 
Luther a hearing in Augsburg. 

Luther's friends were very much concerned about him. 
Staupitz wrote him a letter full of tender sympathy, and 
others begged him not to be so rash in exposing himself 
to danger. The Count of Mansfield advised him not to 
go to Augsburg, because he had been informed of a con- 
spiracy to take his life. Luther returned his thanks to 
all these persons for their friendly interest in him, and 
obeying the summons of the Elector went to Augsburg. 
His spirit, however, was under a cloud, and he thought 
within himself "my end has come." All along the road 
he could not rid himself of the thought of the stake and 
martyrdom, and he sighed and groaned, saying, " alas ! 
what a disgrace must I be to my dear parents I" 

Luther traveled by way of Niirnberg. Scheurl, the 
friend of his student-life at Erfurt, was living at Niirn- 
berg, and it was the pleasure of the Elector that he 
should be Luther's legal adviser at the judicial hearing. 
Scheurl had not been informed of this, and was then ab- 
sent upon some business in the service of the city. Lu- 



89 



ther arrived at Augsburg on October 7th, and took lodg- 
ings in the Carmelite monastery, the Prior, John Frosch, 
being his friend. Dr. Peutinger and Canon Langeman- 
tel called upon him, as did also Riihel and Feilitzsch, 
counselors of the Elector. They advised him not to ap- 
pear before the Cardinal until he had secured a certifi- 
cate of safe conduct from the Emperor, as a protection 
against any insidious arrest. The Italian, Serralonga, 
also made him a visit for the purpose of questioning 
him. Serralonga could not see anything that was at all 
serious in the whole affair. Luther should only pro- 
nounce six letters of the alphabet (" revoco," I recant), 
and all would be right. In defence of indulgence he 
was constrained to say, that it was right to teach the 
common people what was not true, provided it only 
brought in their money. He asked Luther, " Suppose 
that Prince Frederick will not take up arms in your de- 
fence, where will you be then?" To which Luther re- 
plied, " under the heavens." The crafty foreigner could 
do nothing with the honest German, and so he took his 
leave. 

Cardinal Cajetan was not well pleased with the impe- 
rial letter of safe conduct which had been granted to 
Luther. Cajetan himself arrived on October 12th, and 
Luther, accompanied by two Carmelite and two Augus- 
tine monks, waited upon him at once. He approached 
the Cardinal with the most profound reverence, begged 
his forgiveness for anything that he might have taught 
or done inconsiderately, and declared that he was ready 
to receive proper instruction and to be guided on the 
right way. The Cardinal received him courteously and 



90 



spoke in recognition of his scholarship. He said that 
he was not disposed to enter into any disputation, but 
rather to settle the business in a fatherly way. His Holi- 
ness, the Pope, demanded three things of Luther; first, 
that he should recant his heresies; secondly, that he 
should promise to abstain from them in future; thirdly, 
that he should refrain from everything else that might 
disturb the peace of the church. Cajetan kept the letter 
of the Pope containing these three demands in his own 
pocket, although Luther asked permission to see it. 

Luther then requested the Cardinal to point out his 
heresies, for he himself was not aware of any. Cajetan 
then brought up the 95 Theses, together with the expla- 
nation of them, and strongly urged that Luther had de- 
nied the essential identity of indulgence and the merits 
of Christ, and that he had asserted that a saving recep- 
tion of the sacrament depended upon the faith of him 
who received it. 

Notwithstanding all his shallowness, Cajetan had ex- 
actly hit the two fundamental thoughts of the Theses. 
Luther had seen how indulgence had brought the all- 
availing merits of Christ into contempt; and as to the 
efficacy of the Sacrament, he saw that that depended 
upon faith, because God Himself had made the fulfil- 
ment of His promise of grace to depend upon our em- 
bracing that promise by faith. The Cardinal held him- 
self to be very learned in the Scriptures, but as he was 
now led into a controversy, in spite of himself, he became 
involved in all manner of absurd contradictions. So he 
abruptly put an end to the interview, demanding of Lu- 
ther an unqualified submission to the Pope, as supreme 



91 



lord both of the Scripture and of the church. Luther, 
however, begged to be allowed one day for consideration. 
Upon Luther's return to the monastery he found his 
venerable fried, Staupitz, awaiting him there. They 
then took counsel together as to the mode of proceeding 
with the Cardinal. The next day Luther, in company 
with four jurists, one notary and Dr. Staupitz, waited 
upon Cajetan. He read a solemn protest against the 
constraint involved in the three demands of the Pope, as 
long as he was not convicted of heresy. He was pre- 
pared to submit to the righteous decision of the church, 
and begged that the judgment of divers universities 
might be obtained. At the reading of this paper Caje- 
tan smiled with an aristocratic air, and advised his 
"poor brother" to take serious thought with himself and 
to renounce all ideas of resistance. Luther then begged 
to be allowed to give his answer to the three demands of 
the Pope in writing. This ruffled Cajetan, and he turned 
upon Luther sharply, saying, " My son, I have not con- 
tended with you and will have no strife with you, but 
out of respect to your sovereign Lord and Prince, I am 
willing to treat you like a father and to give you a gra- 
cious hearing, as also to admonish you and to instruct 
you." However, when Dr. Staupitz had spoken in favor 
of Luther's request, the Cardinal gave his consent. Lu- 
ther then went to work at once. Notwithstanding the 
very short time allowed him, he explained, in a manner 
thoroughly clear, the reasons why he could not submit 
to the demands of the Pope, without doing violence to 
his Christian conscience. In justification of his position 
in regard to the necessity of faith, he used the following 



92 



language : " Faith alone, in the word of Christ, justifies, 
obtains merit, secures life, and qualifies for the worthy 
reception of the Sacrament; without faith everything 
else is nothing but self-presumption or the stragglings of 
despair — for the just shall live by his faith." 

The next day Luther delivered this Augsburg confes- 
sion to the Cardinal. Cajetan threw it contemptuously 
upon the table, saying, that he would send it to Rome. 
Then he began to storm away at Luther, who was not 
able to put in a word. Whenever Luther attempted to 
produce some proof from the Scripture, Cajetan would 
suddenly dart off upon something else. At last his pa- 
tience was all gone, and with loud rage he called upon 
Luther "enough, recant!" But Luther refused to recant 
and referred again to the protest and the appeal he had 
made the day before. At this the Cardinal broke through 
all bounds and said, that if Luther would not recant on 
the spot, or present himself before his judges at Rome, 
he would hurl the anathema of the church against him 
and against all who favored him ; and he had a Papal 
Mandate in his hands empowering him so to do. Caje- 
tan arose, saying, " Be gone, recant, or never let me see 
your face again !" and Luther retired in silence. 

The Cardinal sent for Dr. Staupitz, and in many words 
stated to him what a friendly feeling he had for Luther. 
He then begged the Prior to act the part of mediator, 
but Staupitz declined. Thereupon the hot-blooded Ro- 
man gave vent to his displeasure, saying: "I do not 
want to have anything more to do with that beast; his 
eyes are deep and he has got strange speculations in his 
head." 



93 



Luther did not come before the Cardinal again, but re- 
mained quietly in the monastery. Staupitz visited him 
and encouraged him, saying, " Remember brother, that 
you have begun this in the Name of our Lord Jesus 
Christ." He also absolved him from the rule of his Or- 
der, so that, in case silence should be imposed upon him, 
he might be able to plead that he was not bound by the 
monk's vow of obedience. Staupitz and Scheurl even 
contemplated the extraordinary project of sending Lu- 
ther to Paris, the university of which was likewise op- 
posed to the sole supremacy of the Pope. Lack of funds, 
however, defeated the plan, and Luther had to continue 
on in the service of his fatherland. 

Luther again made his appeal in legal form before a 
Notary. He appealed, not to a Council, but from the 
Pope ill-informed to the Pope to be better informed. For 
several days he was expecting to receive a communica- 
tion from Cajetan, but in vain. Cajetan's silence made 
Luther's friends uneasy, so in the night of October 20th, 
the Canon, Langemantel, had a door opened for his 
egress in the city wall ; the Council furnished him with 
an experienced attendant who knew the roads, and Lu- 
ther escaped from the city unobserved. On the first day 
they rode 40 miles to Nurnberg, and when Luther dis- 
mounted he fell down, unable to stand. In Niirnberg, 
a communication from Spalatin reached him, which con- 
veyed a Papal Brief, commanding Cajetan to arrest the 
heretic, Luther, and take him a prisoner to Eome. It 
was intended that the anathema should strike all the 
adherents of Luther, even the Princes themselves who 
protected him. This arrangement had been determined 



94 



already at that time when Luther was first summoned to 
appear at Rome. Cajetan had only been playing with 
him, trying to put him at his ease, so that he might the 
more easily get him into his power; and the Pope him- 
self had ordered the execution of this treacherous scheme. 
Luther afterwards remarked, " what a strange affair the 
conscience of ' the other god of the whole earth ' must be." 

Luther arrived at Wittenberg in good condition on 
October 31st. He informed Spalatin of his return in this 
manner: "By the grace of God I have come back in 
good health, yet, not knowing how long I shall remain 
here ; for my business is in such a state that I both fear 
and hope at the same time. * * * * I am full of 
joy and peace; and indeed, I am surprised to find that 
many persons regard the trial to which I have been sub- 
jected as having been something great." 

The Elector informed Luther that Cajetan had made 
another demand upon him to deliver him up at Rome, 
but he added, that he still insisted upon the hearing be- 
ing had in German territory. He expected, however, 
that his professor would conduct himself somewhat more 
prudently. To this Luther could not consent. He pub- 
lished in the Latin language a report of his interviews 
with Cajetan, and at the same time an appeal from the 
Pope to a General Council. As to his respect for Rome, 
he had already got to the bottom of it. Referring to this 
matter, in a certain letter he says, that the veritable Anti- 
christ may be seen looking out at the Court of Rome. 
Every day he was in expectation of having the anathema 
hurled at him; and in order that he might not involve 
others in misery he proposed to leave Wittenberg. In 



95 

the pulpit he bade farewell to his congregation, exhort- 
ing them not to be alarmed if he should suddenly disap- 
pear, but to commit all to God. He did not allow any- 
thing to interfere with his important labors as preacher 
and professor; and just at this time he cheerfully em- 
braced the opportunity to prepare for publication his 
"Exposition of the Lord's Prayer for the General Laity." 
In its preface he says: "My desire is, if possible, to ren- 
der a good service even to my enemies, for my disposition 
has always been to be useful in helping everybody, and 
to do harm to no one." 

In Rome it was now proposed to take another course, 
and to yield a point or two. The Pope's Bull, indeed, 
had condemned the heresies that had been started in 
Germany, but the name of Luther had not been men- 
tioned. Pope Leo X. sent off his chamberlain, Charles 
von Miltiz, a commissioner, to the Elector, bearing two 
letters of very different import. In the one the Pope in- 
forms the Prince, that Miltiz would place in his hands 
the consecrated golden rose, the precious fragrance of 
which would pervade his heart and so tenderly incline 
him to give cordial support to the chamberlain in his 
praise-worthy object. In the other, the Pope demands 
that Luther, "this child of Satan, this offspring of the 
Devil, this son of perdition," shall be delivered up to 
him. Miltiz was in no great hurry, for he wanted first 
to ascertain what was the prevailing sentiment in Ger- 
many. To his amazement, he discovered that the glory 
of Rome had in large measure faded away from before 
the eyes of the people, and that their interest in Luther 
and in his cause was so much the more deep and decided. 



96 

For this reason he felt that it would be advisable to deal 
gently with Luther. He met Luther and Spalatin in 
Altenburg shortly after New Year. Being a thorough 
courtier, he spoke with Luther in captivating terms, took 
him to task quite tenderly, and then would yield the 
point. Luther looked upon him as a man of honor, and 
so, yielding to Miltiz, he promised to address an humble 
letter of regret to the Pope, and to cease writing for the 
future, so that the conflict might cease. However, to his 
promise he appended the proviso, "so far as the other 
party will keep quiet." In the evening the several gen- 
tlemen supped together in cheerful mood, and Miltiz 
kissed the Wittenberg Doctor upon taking his departure. 
It was not long, however, before Luther discovered what 
was hidden behind the smooth outside of the Chamber- 
lain of the Pope. He detected his hypocrisy; but at 
first he kept the discovery to himself. 

Miltiz then went to Lepsic and had a reckoning with 
the indulgence vendor, Tetzel, concerning whom he had 
been informed, that he never ceased to be himself, even 
in the busiest times. He held him to a strict account, 
and charged him with new violations of chastity. Tetzel 
died in the following summer, having been long sick 
and forsaken. During his sickness Luther wrote him a 
letter of consolation. 

Miltiz requested the Archbishop of Triers to sit as 
Judge in the case of Luther, against which Luther had 
no objection. Meanwhile, the Pope kept quiet, for he 
was now less disposed than ever to disturb his friendly 
relations with the Elector, because the Emperor Maxi- 
milian had died January 12th, 1519, and Frederick had 
become Regent of the Empire in North Germany. > 



97 



At the request of the Bishop of Brandenburg, who now 
visited Wittenberg, Luther wrote once more to Pope Leo 
X. on March 3d. He justifies his movement in terms 
of profound humility. He wrote a book for the people 
entitled " Information Concerning Several Articles which 
his Enemies had Cut Out and Imposed upon Him." 

Miltiz and Cajetan met the Archbishop of Triers in 
Coblenz. Luther was invited to go to this meeting, but 
Frederick the Wise would not give his consent. He pre- 
ferred that the matter should be brought before the first 
Diet, to be held under the presidency of the newly 
elected Emperor Charles, of Spain. Miltiz had to go 
back to Rome leaving the object of his mission unaccom- 
plished. 

10. THE DISPUTATION AT LEIPSIC. 

"So far as the other party will keep quiet." This was 
the condition on which Luther had promised Miltiz to 
be silent. But the other party would not consent to 
keep their mouths shut. Dr. John Eck,, of Ingolstadt, 
thought that it would ruin his good health if he were 
not allowed to ventilate his talents. He boasted of the 
bright display he had made in disputations at Bologna 
and Vienna. Before Luther had met Miltiz, Carlstadt 
had invited Eck to meet him for a trial of skill in a pub- 
lic disputation at Wittenberg. Wittenberg, however, was 
too small a place for the great Doctor, and so they agreed 
upon Leipsic. Eck presented 13 Theses, as the subject 
for the disputation. They were not directed against Carl- 
stadt, but against Luther. Carlstadt wished to bring up 

7 



98 



the doctrine of Augustine concerning grace and free 
win, as the subject of discussion, but Eck moved directly 
against Luther's explanation of repentance, and indulg- 
ence, and purgatory, and maintained the supreme au- 
thority of the Pope as the successor of Christ and St. 
Peter, ever since the Council of Nice. Yes, he even 
called upon Luther, saying, that as he was the man who 
had been scattering the tares abroad, he was bound to 




Dr. John Eck. 

appear at the disputation and to defend his cause. Lu- 
ther believed that this presumption on the part of Eck 
released him from the obligation of the promise he had 
■ given to Miltiz. He accepted the challenge, and drew 
up counter-theses. He attacked the "divine right" of 
the Papal Supremacy, drawing his arguments from the 
Scriptures and from the orthodox church fathers, Cyprian, 



99 



Athanasius and Augustine. As he had done to his own 
95 Theses, so too, to the 13 Theses of Eck, he appended a 
series of explanations, in which he announced his con- 
victions without reserve. He maintained that "the 
Christian faith cannot admit that there is any other 
Head over the church universal on earth than Christ. 
The church, with all its spiritual treasures, is not con- 
fined to Rome alone, but is everywhere, where the one 
baptism, the Divine Word, the sacraments, where faith 
and love and hope are, wherever God's Word is preached 
and believed. There is the true faith; and this is the 
Rock against which the gates of hell cannot prevail; 
where faith is there is the church ; where the church is 
there is the Bride of Christ; where the Bride is there is 
everything that belongs to the Bridegroom." 

When the University of Leipsic was informed that Lu- 
ther, and not Carlstadt, was- to lead in the disputation 
against Eck, it refused to open its halls for the occasion. 
The Bishop of Merseburg, Chancellor of the University, 
had raised objections; but as Duke George, of Saxony, 
was desirous of hearing Luther, the Bishop and the Uni- 
versity finally yielded their consent. Duke George gave 
Luther permission to appear; but in the passport he was 
named only as the traveling companion of Carlstadt. 

Carlstadt and Luther arrived in Leipsic, June 24th, 
1519. As being Luther's senior and the first disputant, 
Carlstadt led the way, Luther's coach following. The 
Rector of the University of Wittenberg, Duke Barnim, 
of Pomerania, Nicholas von Amsdorf, and Professor 
Lange, of Erfurt, accompanied them. Two hundred 
students of Wittenberg, armed with lances, marched with 



100 



the coaches for their protection and as a guard of honor. 
Unfortunately for Carlstadt, his coach broke down and 
he fell in the mud. Luther then passed on in advance, 
the spectators remarking, he will mount to the top, the 
other will fall below. Eck himself had already reached 
Leipsic. 

Duke George had had the large Pleissenburg Hall pre- 
pared for the disputation. A commission was appointed 
to determine the order of proceedings. Carlstadt and 
Luther prevailed upon the commission to appoint secre- 
taries, because they had reason to suspect that their ene- 
mies would distort their arguments. Luther also suc- 
ceeded in carrying the point that the transactions should 
not be referred to the Papal Court, but to a General Coun- 
cil that was to be expected, or to some university, for a 
final adjudication. 

The Disputation was opened with due solemnity, June 
27th. One of the professors delivered a salutatory ad- 
dress in the great hall of the university. Then the as- 
sembly went to attend Mass in the church of St. Thomas, 
where a choir of twelve voices furnished the music. 
After this they marched to the Castle, escorted by the 
military of the city with drums in advance. Two tri- 
bunes or pulpits were erected in the hall. Above the 
one intended for Eck was hung a picture of St. George 
and the dragon; above the other a picture of St. Martinus 
the friend of the poor. Peter Schade, a Professor of 
Leipsic, occupied two hours in the delivery of an elegant 
oration upon the Art of Controversy. After this the 
choir sang a hymn of invitation to the Holy Spirit, dur- 
ing which the whole assembly were upon their knees. 



101 



They were then dismissed for dinner, and the regular 
Disputation began at two o'clock in the afternoon. Eck 
and Carlstadt met face to face. The audience was of a 
highly respectable character, and many members of the 
nobility were there in company with Duke George. 
There were members of the Church of Bohemia likewise 
in attendance. The military of the city was stationed 
not only at the castle, but about the lodgings of the 
Wittenberg students also, for the purpose of protecting 
them against the people of Leipsic, who were of the other 
party. 

The controversy between Carlstadt and Eck upon the 
subject of Free Will and upon man's ability to do good 
works continued for four days. Carlstadt contended for 
the doctrine of the Bible, and Eck opposed that with the 
doctrine of Rome. Eck was an experienced disputant, 
well versed in controversy, and had command of an ex- 
cellent memory. Carlstadt had more mettle than skill, 
and on the fourth day it looked as if Eck would come off 
with flying colors. Luther was ill at ease with the course 
of the Disputation. He said : " This affair was not begun 
in God's Name, and it will not end in His Name, for the 
opposition is contending for personal glory rather than 
for the glory of the truth." The people of Leipsic lav- 
ished their honors upon Eck and treated the Wittenber- 
gers with cool reserve. 

At the request of Duke Barnim, Luther preached in 
the hall on June 29th, the day of the Apostles Peter and 
Paul, having Matt. 1G: 13-19 for his text. Although the 
sermon was truly edifying and practical, nevertheless it 
was not well received. Eck preached against Luther in 



102 



two of the churches, Luther himself not being admitted 
to any of the city pulpits. Upon one occasion as he en- 
tered a church whilst the monks were reading mass they 
quickly gathered up the sacred vessels and hurried off 
with them, lest the sacrament might be polluted by the 
presence of the heretic. 

At last, it happened that Luther encountered the In- 
golstadt Doctor, July 4th. They agreed at once to discuss 
the question of the Pope's supremacy, Luther announcing 
beforehand that he would not have touched this subject 
at all had not Eck challenged him to lay hold of it. The 
Leipsic Professor, Peter Schade (Mosellanus), described 
the appearance of both contestants in a letter: " Martinus 
is of medium stature, of slender frame, and in conse- 
quence of severe study and anxiety so lean that you 
might almost count his bones. He is yet in the prime 
of life, and his voice is clear and ringing. In speaking 
he shows his command of an extraordinary wealth both 
of thought and of language. In company he is courteous 
and friendly without austerity. He is scrupulous in the 
useful application of every hour to its appropriate work, 
and in the circle of his friends he is cheerful and delights 
in the sallies of wit. He always appears to be fresh and 
lively, and in the face of the terrors of his foes he main- 
tains an assured peace of mind and a cheerful counte- 
nance. I willingly satisfy myself that this man has not 
undertaken so great a work without Divine assistance. 
The opposition maintain that he brought a nosegay with 
him to the Disputation, and that he has been smelling 
at it." 

" Eck, on the other hand, can make a more stately dis- 



103 



play of his sides and corners. In body he is large and 
coarse. He has a loud, harsh voice, fleshy, flabby face, 
large eyes and a big mouth. He has a good memory, 
but his judgment is not keen. He is master of the art 
of imposing upon uneducated people by a torrent of bom- 
bast. In addition to this he has an incredible amount of 
audacity and cunning. His every word and act seemed 
to be directed upon one single point, that is, to have 
himself acknowledged by the whole world as a great 
doctor." 

For five days Luther and Eck disputed about the di- 
vine authority of the Papal rule. Luther was willing to 
recognize that rule as being of human authority for the 
sake of good order, but he denied that it was of divine 
authority, because such presumption would be a usurpa- 
tion of the royal prerogative of the One Head in Heaven. 
Eck maintained, with calmness of manner, that the 
Greeks were heretics, and that probably there were only 
a couple of monks among them who would be saved as 
they quietly held on to Rome. As to the Bohemians, 
he said that the adherents of the pestilential heresies 
of John Hus were enemies of the church, whom the 
church was obliged to hate. To this Luther replied that 
there was certainly a communion of true Christians in 
the Greek Church also, and it was a shame to say that 
they could not be saved. As to the Bohemians, he said 
that among the teachings of John Hus, which had been 
anathematized, there was much that was of a Christian 
spirit, and in harmony with the Gospel. This declara- 
tion aroused a powerful excitement in the audience, for 
at that time no more powerful expression could be used 



104 



than "you are a Bohemian," which was taken to mean 
an ungodly, apostate wretch. Duke George belched forth 
a curse, and Eck rejoiced in his heart at having en- 
trapped his adversary, who had hitherto been making it 
too warm for him. 

The next day Luther opened the Disputation by pre- 
senting four of Hus's propositions which he asserted 
were incontestable. It is true that the Council of Con- 
stance had condemned them; but even a Council may 
err, the Holy Scriptures alone are unerring. He ap- 
pealed to this same principle afterwards when the Dispu- 
tation took up the subjects of purgatory and of indulgence. 

After Carlstadt had submitted additional Theses about 
the relation between the grace of God and the human 
will, the Disputation came to an end on July 16th. 
Luther left Leipsic at once, but Eck tarried for a consid- 
erable time, pampering himself with the delicious fare 
of the city. He was in a merry mood, for he claimed the 
victory, and was glad to have others award him the 
palm. Luther arrived in Wittenberg depressed in spirit. 
He complained to Spalatin that he had never seen such 
barefaced rancor as he had to encounter there. Yet he 
had made many friends after all, and found a fervent 
encomiast in Peter Schade (Mosellanus), who had great 
influence at Leipsic. The Theological Faculties of Paris 
and Erfurt, to whose judgment the transactions were sub- 
mitted, refrained from announcing their decision. 

Eck was by no means satisfied with his pretended 
triumph. He sent a Report of the Disputation to Rome, 
and advised the prompt execution of the condemnation 
of Luther. He instigated the Franciscan monks in Sax- 



105 



ony against Luther, whom he accused of despising the 
Councils, and of holding fellowship with the Bohemians. 
Again, Luther published "Explanations," this time, how- 
ever, of the Leipsic Theses, and answered the accusations 
of the Franciscans in such a way as to make them cau- 
tious for the future. But now another adversary lifted 
up his head, whose malignity gave Luther much trouble, 
to wit, Emser, of Dresden, who had once before published 
his antipathy to Luther. Emser wrote to the Provost, 
Zeck, in Prague, Bohemia, and represented Luther as the 
great spokesman of the Bohemian heresy. This letter 
indeed had a kind of friendly tone, but Luther saw 
through its malignity at once, and full of abhorrence at 
its hypocrisy, answered it in a forcible manner. Emser 
paid back in like coin, after which Luther let him drop. 
Luther's Explanations of the Leipsic Theses broke up 
the sleep of Eck, who had been intoxicated with victory. 
He published a writing to defend himself and a composi- 
tion "Against Luther's absurd chase," and then posted 
off to Rome for the purpose of stirring up the abyss of 
hell against him, as Luther stated to Spalatin. He in- 
tended also to offer to the Pope a book upon the Primacy 
of the Pope which he had written in a hurry, and thus 
commend himself to the favor of his Lord and master 
LeoX. 

Miltiz renewed his efforts to change the course of 
Luther. He solicited an interview with Luther in the 
politest terms. Luther repeated the assurance of his 
willingness to present himself for examination before the 
Archbishop of Triers. The Elector, however, would not 
consent to this, for he wished the matter to be brought 



106 



before the Diet that was approaching. Even the Arch- 
bishop himself showed no disposition to meddle in the 
affair now, for it had broken out of the walls of the uni- 
versities and beyond the cells of the monasteries, and 
had come to be noised abroad everywhere, so that up 
and down the land the name of Luther was in every- 
body's mouth and no one could be neutral any longer. 
The Universities of Cologne and Louvain burnt Luther's 
writings and insisted upon it that Luther should be com- 
pelled to recant. It was an easy matter to supply the 
loss of the volumes that had thus been reduced to ashes, 
for the printer, Froben, of Basle, had sent off a large 
supply to England and to Spain, and could tell a great 
deal about the favor with which they were received even 
by certain bishops themselves. Lazarus Spengler, Secre- 
tary of the Council of Nlirnberg, put forth in the interest 
of Luther "A Defence of a sincere lover of the Divine 
Truth of the Holy Scriptures." (Ecolampadius, Preacher 
in Augsburg, and Adelmann, Canon in the same city, 
published a work against Eck that cut his vanity to the 
quick. The Patrician, Bilihold Pirkheimer, of Nlirnberg, 
a man of the highest character, published a satirical 
dialogue under the title, " The Corner rounded off" (' der 
abgehobelte Eck '). Luther did not favor this mode of 
controversy adopted by Pirkheimer, for in his estimation 
the matter was too serious and holy to allow him to 
attack and irritate his adversaries with the keen points 
of sarcasm. 

At Melanchthon's suggestion, Luther addressed letters 
to the two most learned men of the day, Reuchlin, of 
Ingolstadt, and Erasmus, of Rotterdam. Reuchlin was 



107 

advanced in years and excused himself from active co- 
operation, although he did not conceal his favorable dis- 
position. Erasmus was yet in his prime, and felt flattered 
by the fact that the celebrated Wittenberg Doctor had 
written him so respectful a letter. Nevertheless, he was 
too calculating and too fond of the favors of the great 
and mighty to be willing to declare himself on the side 
of Luther. He entered into epistolary correspondence 
with him, and expressed himself as wishing him well, 
which, of course, did not injure Luther's cause in the 
estimation of the learned. Two Bohemian clergymen 
wrote to Luther in very cordial terms, and assured him 
of the sympathy of the church in Bohemia. They sent 
also certain gifts with their letter, and among these was 
a work of Hus concerning the church, which the recip- 
ient found to be of special value. 

In the autumn of 1519, appeared Luther's Exposition 
of St. Paul's Epistle to the Galatians in the Latin lan- 
guage, and an Explanation of the Fifth Psalm. He took 
special interest in the Epistle to the Galatians, for the 
reason that the fundamental doctrine of Righteousness 
by Faith was presented there in a manner so concise and 
clear. We have already noticed his fondness for the 
Psalms. He was able to instill this fondness for the 
treasures of the word of God into the hearts of others. 
His rising renown and Melanchthon's advancing repu- 
tation drew so many students to Wittenberg that the 
number increased to about 500. Luther appealed to the 
Elector for the endowment of a chair of the Hebrew 
language, and for the commencement of a printing estab- 
lishment. With the aid of Melanchthon, to whom he 



108 



was ever becoming more and more attached, he continued 
diligently in the study of the Greek. Concerning this 
young friend he expressed himself in this manner. "I 
am not ashamed to give up my own opinion when the 
judgment of this grammarian decides otherwise. I have 
done it often, and do it every day, on account of that 
divine grace which God has so abundantly poured out 
into this earthen vessel which Eck treated with contempt 
— in him I glorify the work of God." 

Luther devoted the full proportion of time to his ofn\ 
cial work as preacher. During Lent he gave instruction 
to the young every day, upon the Decalogue and tha 
Lord's Prayer. He preached on the week days of the 
whole year, on the book of Genesis and on the Gospel of 
Matthew. Several of his Sunday sermons appeared in 
print and were widely read; for, in the pulpit, his style 
was of the clearest and simplest kind. Brief articles and 
discussions, generally intended for the common people, 
were printed in great variety. As he himself said, he 
could write rapidly and had a ready memory, so that 
everything he wrote flowed on naturally, rather than 
having to be first smoothed down. And yet, he could 
hardly meet the demands that were made upon him. 

The Elector, Frederick, had read many of his sermons 
that were published as pamphlets, and was edified by 
them. In November, 1519, he requested him, through 
Spalatin, to write a Postil, that is, an exposition, in the 
style of the sermon, of the lessons of the gospels and the 
epistles that were read in the church. Although Luther 
thought he had no time for it, yet he began the work 
at once. However, it advanced but slowly. As it was 



109 



intended chiefly for the use of the clergy he wrote it in 
Latin. As the brother of the Elector, Duke John, was 
his friend, he wrote a long and elaborate discourse for 
him upon " Good Works," as the fruit of faith and of new 
obedience, together with a practical exposition of the ten 
commandments. There appeared also, a short, simple 
exposition of the commandments, the creed and the 
Lord's Prayer — a forerunner of the catechism. In the 
preface he said: "Everything that is in the Holy Scrip- 
tures, and everything that it is necessary for a Christian 
to know, is thoroughly and abundantly included and 
easily comprehended in these three parts. In the first 
place we must learn what we have to do and what to 
avoid; learn also that in these matters we are helpless; 
so the ten commandments reveal to man his moral dis- 
ease. In the next place we must learn by what means 
we are to do the right and avoid the evil; that is, we 
must know the proper remedy for our disease. This is 
what is furnished in the Creed which teaches about God, 
and about God's mercy in Christ. And the true Creed 
is not that which only teaches us to learn and to believe 
about God, but it is that which teaches us to believe in 
God; that is, to fix our trust in Him without doubting, 
and to venture all upon Him, both for life and for death. 
In the third place, the Lord's Prayer teaches us how we 
should long for the mercy of God, and how we should 
bow down before him in meek and confiding supplica- 
tion." 



110 



11. THE BULL OF EXCOMMUNICATION. 

The year 1520, towards the end of which Luther, by 
the burning of the Pope's Bull, announced his with- 
drawal from the church of the Pope, had been for him, 
a year of continuous controversy. He had to ward off 
attacks that were made upon him from all quarters. He 
had to break through the ranks of his powerful foes and 
prepare the way for the word of the Lord. He endeav- 
ored to attain to clearer views and to a more positive as- 
surance of the truth for himself; and like a prophet, he 
was called to remove the foreign yoke from the necks of 
his people. It was in the name of all Christendom that 
he ventured to draw the sword and to apply the torch. 

His enemies in Leipsic reported that he was a Bohe- 
mian bastard, whom his father had picked up in Prague. 
The baptismal register at Eisleben, however, furnished 
the evidence of his legitimate and honorable birth. The 
Bishop of Meissen wrote a pastoral letter against him as 
a despiser of the Sacrament, but in such an awkward 
way, that the sharp answer in which Luther replied, was 
pleasing, even to his enemies. Yet, there was one ex- 
pression in this letter that occasioned a new uproar, for 
Luther attacked the celibacy of the clergy as being con- 
trary to the Holy Scriptures. Luther had addressed a 
letter of complaint to the first Prince of the church, the 
Archbishop of Mayence, to which the Archbishop replied 
in a friendly spirit. He admitted indeed, that he had 
given little attention to Luther's writings ; yet, he added : 
if Luther teaches the truth and does it humbly, in the 
fear of God, giving no encouragement to disobedience of 



Ill 



the rules of the church, then his work is of God, and no 
man can arrest it ; but if his work proceeds from pride, 
or envy, or malice, it will, of itself, come to nought. 
Alveld, a Franciscan monk of Leipsic, published a swag- 
gering book, under the title, " On the Apostolic See," in 
which he addresses Luther as a perverse heretic and a 
hound of hell. Luther disposed of him summarily, by 
sending him his book "Of the Eoman Papacy;" and 
proved to him that in the true sense of the word, the 
spiritual Christendom that sanctifies the heart is the 
church. Of course, there are some external things that 
belong to this proper church; yet, these things are nei- 
ther Rome nor the Pope, but they are the word and the 
sacraments. The church does not need a visible head, 
for she can have only One Head, and that is Christ in 
heaven. In his writing against Alveld, Luther's German 
sympathies were deeply stirred. He spreads out before 
his Leipsic adversary the abominable knavery of the 
thieving Romans, who always have this proverb in their 
mouths, " scrape up the gold of these fools of Germans 
wherever you can." 

Old Prierias, now in Rome, turns up, in the excite- 
ment, once more. He repeated his former declarations, 
that the Pope was the infallible judge of the truth, and 
that he derived his authority immediately from God. 
For the purpose of showing to the world in what absurd 
doctrines the Romans had lost themselves, Luther had 
the writing of Prierias published, and accompanied it 
with a preface, in which he boldly maintained that, at 
Rome, the veritable Antichrist was sitting in the temple 
of God. 



112 



By this time Luther was not left to fight alone. The 
conflict with Rome was no longer confined to the sphere 
of the church. What Luther had asserted in his writing 
to Alveld, concerning Roman craftiness and avarice, was 
noised abroad and heard everywhere throughout all Ger- 
many. Out of a lingering respect for the chair of St. 
Peter, Luther kept what he had himself seen in Rome 
shut up in the secrets of his own heart. Others, how- 
ever, were not so forbearing. German scholars, who were 
sojourning in Rome, wrote to their friends, giving state- 
ments of affairs most incredible, and yet, only too true. 
They were especially outraged by the contemptuous treat- 
ment that was accorded to the Germans. In Rome, 
Princes of the empire even, were put upon a level with 
the stable boys of the Pope. Already, at the Diet of Augs- 
burg, in 1518, the estates of the empire had laid before 
Cajetan their grievance under Roman insolence. Since 
that time this insolence had gone on increasing, and 
now, from among the Knights who were controlled by a 
patriotic spirit, there arose powerful voices insisting upon 
the re-establishment of German freedom, and upon de- 
liverance from the dominion of Rome. Ulricli von Hutten, 
the favorite of the Archbishop of Mayence, attacked the 
Romans with cutting satires. His Patron for a long time 
allowed him to do as he pleased. Thurzo, Bishop of Bres- 
lau, was not afraid to declare himself boldly for Luther, 
but he died in the summer of 1520, lamented by Luther 
as the best bishop of the century. Francis von Sickingen, 
the most distinguished of all the German Knights, offered 
Luther a refuge in his castle, in case the storm that was 
rolling up from Rome should burst over him, and Sick- 



113 



ingen's friend Schanmburg, proposed to put himself and 
one hundred other Knights at his command, as a defence. 
In a writing, in which he attacked the tyranny and the 
worthlessness of the court of Rome, Luther returned his 
thanks to the Knights for their offers of friendship. In 
the month of August, his small volume that acquired 
such celebrity, was published, entitled, " To the Christian 
Nobles of the German Nation, Concerning the Improvement of 
the Christian Character." Luther would allow nothing like 
physical force, nothing like the shedding of blood. With 
the help of God, and by his word, he would so ruin the 
walls that Rome had built up around herself, that no 
one would be able to restore them. The first wall was 
the Roman heresy concerning the spiritual power and 
concerning the unassailable character of the clerical or- 
der. But in truth, to this clerical order all Christians 
belong, by virtue of baptism, the word and faith. The 
second wall was the heresy that the Pope alone has the 
authority to explain the Scriptures. But Christ says 
that all Christians shall be taught of God, and St. Paul 
states his views in I. Cor. 14: 30. The third wall was 
that the Pope is superior to the councils. Luther now 
appeals, not to the Pope, but to the Emperors, as having 
political supremacy, to imitate the example of the first 
Christian Emperor, Constantine the Great, and to con-, 
vene a council for the purpose of considering the tribula- 
tions of the church and improving the condition of Chris- 
tendom. He enumerates the defects and the abuses of 
the church, such as the haughtiness of the Pope, the 
avarice of the Cardinals, the intolerable ecclesiastical 
taxes, etc., in 26 sections. For the repeal or the amelio- 



114 



ration of these matters, he gives such practical suggestions 
as reveal what a large heart this German man of the 
people had. He speaks also about the monks who vowed 
so much and performed so little, and of the celibacy of 
the priests, as a violation both of nature and of the Scrip- 
ture. He demands a purging of the order of public wor- 
ship, and a reduction in the number of holidays, by 
which the people had been seduced into laziness and 
gluttony, and insists that the abuses of begging shall be 
corrected. He then adds words of sympathy for the per- 
secuted Bohemians and says, that heretics should be sub- 
dued with the word and not with fire. The universities 
needed a thorough reformation, and his desire was to 
have schools of a lower grade, and even schools for 
females, established everywhere. In the 27tn section he 
speaks of abuses as they occur in ordinary life; of lux- 
ury, of intemperance, of usury, of the arbitrary dealings 
of large corporations, etc.; and the book closes with the 
words: "May God grant us all a Christian understand- 
ing, and especially bestow genuine spiritual courage 
upon the nobles of Germany, that they may do their 
best for the afflicted church. Amen." In this book Lu- 
ther spoke keenly and to the point. His nearest friends 
shook their heads at his vehemency. But the nobility, 
and the Burghers, and the more intelligent peasantry, 
were of a different opinion. What they had themselves 
long thought and felt, they found clearly, and truthfully, 
and boldly, laid before them in this book. In a few days 
4000 copies of this book were sold. 

Soon afterwards he published a sermon on the Mass, 
intended for Christians generally, in which, after a brief 



115 



exposition of the Romish heresy, he urged the simplifi- 
cation of the ceremonies and the use of the German lan- 
guage, in the celebration of the sacrament. This was 
followed by another small volume that likewise, became 
famous "On the Babylonian Captivity of the Church." 
Although, in his first volume, he had uncovered the ar- 
rogance of Rome and the miserable defects that were so 
fatal to the life of the church, nevertheless, he did not 
regard these as the severest wounds under which the 
church was suffering. That distinction, he saw, belonged 
to the tyranny which the power of the Pope exercised in 
oppressing souls and consciences; and this was the sub- 
ject he proposed to handle now. Beginning with the 
seven sacraments, he showed what sacraments the Lord 
Himself had instituted, and what the Roman church 
had set up without Divine authority. With great force, 
and as one learned in things Divine, he pointed out 
where, and how far, the Roman church was guilty of sin- 
ning against the Lord and against His saints, and how, 
by her lust of power, she had plunged so many thou- 
sands of souls into danger and destruction. 

Whilst Luther was engaged in these writings in the in- 
terest of a Reformation, Eck was traveling back from 
Rome to Saxony. The Pope had issued his Bull of Ex- 
communication on June 16th, and ordered the Ingol- 
stadt Doctor to convey it to Germany and proclaim it 
there. Luther got to see it on October 8th, after Eck, 
with many officious demonstrations, had posted it on the 
doors of churches in the neighboring towns. Eck took 
on like a grand ambassador of the Pope's. The Bull of 
Leo X., "the servant of the servants of Christ," con- 



116 



demned 41 propositions of Luther's writings as heretical 
errors, and amongst them was this one, to-wit: "that it 
is contrary to the mind of the Holy Spirit to burn here- 
tics at the stake." The Pope, in tears, through anxiety 
and grief of heart, had been striving, yet all in vain, to 
bring this lost child back again. The perverse creature 
had even appealed to a council, and this itself deserved 
the punishment of heresy. Yet, notwithstanding, the 
Pope would imitate the Divine tenderness and offer his 
gracious hand to this prodigal son, upon his coming 
back to the bosom of the church. This Bull suspended 
Luther from the office of preacher, and, if he would not 
recant within 60 days, he should be regarded as a heretic 
and -treated accordingly. A threat of like import was 
pronounced against all his adherents ; and all Princes, 
and all civil authorities, and all Burghers, and all coun- 
try people, were admonished to arrest and to confine him 
and his confederates. Among these confederates Eck 
counted his own personal adversaries, Pirkheimer and 
Spengler, of Nurnberg, and Carlstadt, of Wittenberg. 

Miltiz still tarried in Saxony, for he was not yet ready 
to give up the hope of a reconciliation. Luther had not 
fulfilled his promise given to Miltiz, of writing to the 
Pope, and upon the arrival of the Bull, he was inclined 
to consider himself entirely released from it. However, 
Miltiz thought that Luther ought to write to Leo and as- 
sure that great potentate, that in all he had ever said 
against the papacy, he had never thought of showing 
any disrespect to the person of Leo himself. Luther felt, 
too, that he could express such an assurance, and so he 
wrote to the Pope, never alluding to the Bull, however, 



117 



but telling his holiness how sorry he was for him, be- 
cause, he, the Pope, had been so much misled by wicked 
tell-tales and advisers. There was nothing that he could 
recant; and, in cogent language, he warns Leo X. against 
all idolatrous notions about himself. The letter breathes 
a spirit of dignified reverence, but there is nothing of the 
air of servility about it. Luther felt that he was address- 
ing, not an infallible autocrat, but a fellow-man, for 
whom he had the sympathy of pity, on account of the 
dangerous position he occupied. He accompanied his 
letter with a small volume which he dedicated to the 
Pope. It was the third of his writings that became so 
famous in the progress of the Reformation. It appeared 
in 1520, and bears the title, "The Freedom of a Cliristiaii." 
In reference to this book, Luther says to the Pope: As to 
the paper in it, the book is small, and yet, if its spirit is 
understood, it will be found to contain the entire amount 
of the Christian life. I am poor, and have nothing else 
to offer in testimony of my service; and you, for your 
part, do not need to be improved in anything else than 
in spiritual gifts. 

Luther saw, with the eye of faith, what the freedom of 
the Christian really is. In an extended and intelligible 
discussion he unfolds two fundamental principles. They 
are expressed thus: "A Christian is lord over all things 
and is subject to no man." "A Christian is bound to be 
the servant of all things, and to be subject to every man." 
The Christian, as lord, is the inner, spiritual man who, 
by faith, is righteous, pious, free, enjoys salvation, and 
has a priestly kingdom and a royal priesthood. The 
Christian, as servant, is the outer man, who must come 



118 



to be obedient and conformed to the inner man and to 
faith, and make no resistance, no opposition. Love to 
God and delight in Him flow out of faith; and out of 
love there flows forth a life of purity, and gentleness, and 
joyfulness, that renders its services free to our fellow-men. 
A Christian lives not for himself; but he lives for Christ 
and for his neighbor — for Christ by faith — for his neigh- 
bor by love. That is Christian freedom indeed — that 
which makes the heart free from all sin, from laws, from 
ordinances — that is as high above all other kinds of free- 
dom as the heavens are above the earth. 

The Pope had pronounced the doctrine of Luther to be 
an abortion of hell. This book about Christian freedom 
might have convinced him that Luther stood upon solid 
ground, and knew how to point out the true way of sal- 
vation. But Leo was not willing to learn. 

In Saxony, the Bull met with a cold reception. The 
University of Wittenberg did not accept it. The Ad- 
ministrator of the bishopric of Naumburg, Dr. Schmid- 
berg, would not allow it to be published. In the Elec- 
torate of Saxony, it was rejected almost unanimously. 
Frederick the Wise, when pressed by the messengers of 
the Pope to deliver up Luther, treated them with cool- 
ness, and referred them to his Counsellors who, in their 
turn, said that they had no instruction to take action 
in the matter. The Roman officials, almost bursting 
with rage, allowed themselves to indulge in low and 
scandalous abuse of the most eminent of the German 
Electors. Eck came to Erfurt to attend to the publica- 
tion of the Bull there, but the professors of Erfurt showed 
no disposition to co-operate with him. Bavaria was 



119 

strictly popish, yet, there were three bishops in Bavaria 
who refused to accept the Bull. In Leipsic, on the other 
hand, there was great rejoicing over the condemnation 
of Luther. In Louvain and Cologne, the writings of Lu- 
ther were publicly burnt. The same thing was done in 
Mayence; but the Popish Ambassador, Aleander, who 
was looking on, came very near being stoned by the peo- 
ple. Luther soon heard of all this, but as he could not 
expect anything else, he did not grieve over it. Yet, 
when he heard that the aged Staupitz, the friend whom 
he had so heartily loved, had begun to waver, that gave 
him pain. Staupitz was in Salzburg, where he hoped to 
end his days in peace; and the Archbishop demanded of 
him an explanation of his relations to Luther. He was* 
not willing to join in the hue and cry about heresy; but 
he had not the courage to declare himself boldly on Lu- 
ther's side. He wrote for advice to Link, in Augsburg, 
and made this statement : " Martinus has entered upon a 
heavy task and bears himself with noble spirit, for he 
has been taught of God; but I hesitate, for I am yet a 
child and have need of milk." 

Luther never wavered. If friends did so, still the 
Lord, in whom he trusted and whose Spirit filled him 
with joy, continued to uphold him. In answer to the 
Bull of Excommunication, he wrote a small volume en- 
titled, "Against the Bull of Antichrist," in which he 
makes an appeal to a Council, before which he would 
summon the Pope to an account. The estates of the em- 
pire are urged to unite in this appeal, and to withstand 
the wicked designs of the Pope. Beyond this, he had 
another answer prepared. As soon as he had been in- 



120 



formed of the burning of his books, he resolved to pay 
back in the same coin. On December 10th, he an- 
nounced to the students that, at nine o'clock, a.m., he 
would burn the antichristian ordinances and commands 
of the Pope. At that hour a great crowd gathered at the 
Elster-gate, and a magister piled up the wood and ap- 
plied the torch, whilst Luther placed the Papal Decretals 
on the pile. Then, Luther cast the Bull of Excommuni- 
cation into the flames, saying, as he did so, " as thou hast 
grieved the Holy One of God, so let eternal fires consume 
thee." Luther then returned to the town with the teach- 
ers of the university; but the students tarried around 
the fire, singing the " Te Deum " and throwing the books 
of Eck and Emser after the Bull. The next morning 
Luther addressed the students in an impressive discourse, 
saying among other things that, this burning would not 
accomplish everything, for " if you do not with the whole 
heart, abjure the authority of the Pope, you will never 
obtain the salvation of your souls." 

Luther then published a "Justification" of the act, in 
which he referred to the burning of the books of " curious 
arts" at Ephesus, and spoke of his own solemn obliga- 
tions as preacher and doctor of the Holy Scriptures, to 
oppose all ensnaring and misleading doctrines. In the 
month of March, 1521, he published a work entitled, 
"Ground and Reason of all the Articles which have been Un- 
righteously Condemned by the Romish Bull." In this book, 
his attitude is resolute and firm, and the indulgences 
which he had formerly regarded with forbearance, he 
now describes as an act of infernal deception and rob- 
bery. He brings the charge of criminal guilt against the 
Council of Constance, for having rejected the gospel in 



121 



its condemnation of Hus, and for having accepted the 
doctrine of the dragon of hell, instead of the doctrine of 
the Divine word. To the baptized Christian he accords 
the right and privilege of searching the Scriptures for 
himself and without hindrance. To the invidious 
charge, that he, a mere private man, had presumptuously 
undertaken to teach everybody else, he replies, that ac- 
cording to the Scripture itself, God did not take His 
prophets out of the families of kings and high priests, 
but generally called his prophets from among people of 
the lower ranks. He does not claim to be a prophet 
himself; but of this he is absolutely certain, that he has 
the word of God, and that his enemies have it not. In 
the conclusion he says, "I will, very cheerfully, uphold 
and defend the articles which have been condemned by 
the Bull, and trust, by the grace of God, to be able to 
maintain them against all unrighteousness. In the pres- 
ence of force and violence, however, I have nothing but 
a feeble body, which I commit to God and to His holy 
angels, in the interest of that truth which the Pope has 
cursed. Amen." 

Luther's sole defence against the Pope was the "Word. 
He declined to accept the armed assistance which the 
knights had offered him; for he confided in the word 
of the Lord for everything. He could very easily have 
stirred up the people in a mighty revolt against the 
tyranny of the Pope; but his one grand object was to 
obtain deliverance of the conscience from the slavery of 
sin and error. He sought to do only what the Lord en- 
joined upon him; and before long the Lord commanded 
him to bear testimony in the presence of kings and em- 
perors. 



V. 



umt- 



THE DIET OF WORMS. 



'ITH threats of severe punishment 
for any disobedience that might 
occur, the Pope's Bull had com- 
manded the emperor, the prin- 
ces and the civil authorities 
either to deliver up the heretic, 
Martin Luther at Rome, or to 
execute the sentence of death 
upon him themselves. How- 
ever, not a hand was lifted up by w T ay of obeying the 
Pope. The Elector, Frederick the Wise, informed the 
Pope's ambassadors, who were furious, that any violent 
proceedings might have the most serious effects upon the 
peace of the empire. These tools of Rome disregarded 
the warning, and with high sounding words demanded 

(122) 




123 



of the emperor that he should proceed at once to execute 
the sentence pronounced by the lord of all the earth. 
The young emperor, Charles V, was the grandson of 




Charles V. 



Maximilian I. His father was Philip the Fair, husband 
of Joanna, Infanta of Spain. Philip died when Charles 
was six years old, and his mother lost her reason in con- 



124 



sequence. Upon the decease of his Spanish grandfather, 
Ferdinand, the Catholic, Charles inherited both Spain 
and Naples. America likewise was under the dominion 
of Spain, and so Charles might well boast that upon his 
empire the sun never set. His German grandfather died 
in 1519. The grandson then set himself to work at once 
to obtain the imperial crown of Germany, having as his 
rival Francis I, King of France. For a long time the 
Estates of the Empire could not decide the question 
between them. They knew little about Charles, still less 
about Francis. The imperial purple was offered to the 
Elector of Saxony, but he with a wise discretion declined 
the oppressive honor and gave his powerful influence 
in favor of the grandson of the German Maximilian. 
Charles was crowned as Emperor of the Holy Roman 
German Empire, in Charlemagne's City of Aachen (Aix- 
la-Chapelle), on October 23d, 1520, having previously 
been bound to accord important rights to the princes. 

Charles was in no respect a German. His youth had 
been spent in Spain and in the Netherlands. He could 
speak Latin, Spanish and Flemish, but not German. As 
he had been brought up strictly in the Romish faith, 
whatever would not drag along heavily in the old rut 
was unintelligible and repugnant to him, besides his 
disposition was reserved and touched with melancholy. 
Even in Spain the agitation that had been awakened by 
the Gospel had approached him already, but as sovereign 
he felt himself bound to maintain the authority of the 
church. His ghostly counsellors having represented the 
new spirit that had been awakened in Spain itself as a 
spirit of insurrection, he handled the adherents of the 



125 



heretical doctrine as rebels. Yet, after all, he was not a 
devotee of the Pope's. The Pope had actively opposed 
his election as emperor, and Charles had fixed his long- 
ing eyes upon the imperial provinces of Italy. Charles' 
ambassador at Pome advised his master to deal favorably 
with Luther when he went to Germany, for then Pome 
would give up to him. 

For Germany it was an unfortunate circumstance that 
just in this period of powerful agitation the emperor 
proved to be such a perfect stranger both to its language 
and its spirit. Whenever Charles V showed any friendly 
disposition towards the German princes, it was always the 
result of his crafty calculation, for he often stood in need 
of their friendly help in managing his Italian affairs and 
in his relations with his French rival. These considera- 
tions determined his bearing also towards the cause ad- 
vocated by Luther. 

In the Netherlands the writings of Luther had been 
publicly burnt at the command of Charles himself. When 
the Germans were informed of this they expressed their 
indignation in very distinct terms, and this induced the 
emperor to move more cautiously. Frederick the Wise 
begged him not to proceed against Luther without first 
giving him a hearing. The emperor replied that the 
Elector should take Luther along with him to the Diet 
of Worms, for he hoped that the matter might be prop- 
erly adjusted there. In the meantime, however, Luther 
had retorted upon the burning of his own books at Co- 
logne and Mayence by the burning of the Pope's Bull, at 
which Charles became so indignant that he informed the 
Elector that Luther would be permitted to go to Worms 



126 



only on condition that he would recant beforehand. The 
Legate of the Pope, Aleander, plead with all his might 
that Luther should not be summoned to the Diet, but 
that the sentence should be put into execution forthwith. 
But the emperor concluded to wait for the arrival of the 
Elector, who reached Worms January 5th, 1521. After 
conferring with the emperor in regard to the case of 
Luther, the Elector was able to inform his friends at 
home that Charles had expressed himself not unfavorably 
in regard to Luther. Soon afterwards he wrote home 
again and stated that Aleander is reported to have de- 
clared : " If you Germans, who give the Pope less money 
than any other people, cast off the yoke of Rome, we shall 
see well to it that you fall to work murdering one another 
until you all perish in your own blood." In February 
there appeared at Worms another Bull of the Pope leveled 
against Luther. The arch-heretic should be cast into the 
flames at once; the emperor was urged to call a halt to 
the progress of the Lutheran plague, and for the purpose 
of securing his favorable action the Pope promised him 
all kinds of political favors. 

On Ash Wednesday the Legate, Aleander, addressed 
the Diet in a discourse three hours long. He painted in 
the darkest colors and displayed the picture of "the 
Blasphemers, the Husites, the Despisers of Imperial 
Majesty and of Papal Holiness." He represented the 
Theses of Luther as so awful that they were enough to 
justify the burning of thousands of heretics. Many 
members of the Diet were alarmed, and were opposed to 
having anything to do with the Husite, Luther. Yet, 
no definite action was taken. 



127 



Glapio, the emperor's confessor, had a long interview 
with Briick, the Chancellor of Saxony. In terms that 
were wonderful he expressed himself in favor of Luther, 
and he would most respectfully entreat Luther to favor 
him with only a little bit of recanting, and then he would 
take such measures that Luther should be left in peace. 
The Elector, Frederick, did not trust the smooth-tongued 
monk, and ordered his Chancellor to have no further in- 
tercourse with him. 

The emperor submitted to the Diet an Edict, or ordi- 
nance of the sovereign authority, declaring that Luther, 
as being already condemned by the Pope, should have 
no further hearing, but should be arrested at once. The 
Estates would not all consent to this, but considered the 
matter for days together. A member from the City of 
Frankfort wrote to his friends at home: "The monk has 
given us a great deal to do. There is one party that 
would be very glad to crucify him, and I am afraid that 
he will hardly escape from them, but if it should happen, 
the danger is that he would rise again on the third day." 

In Luther's neighborhood the Bishops of Meissen and 
of Merseburg enjoyed themselves in burning whole wagon 
loads of Luther's books. Luther took satisfaction for this 
in writing another book entitled, "Instruction for those 
who go to Confession." His friend Melanchthon came to 
his aid with a fine pointed lance in a book against the 
drivelings of Emser in Leipsic. Then Thomas Murner, a 
monk, brandished his awkward weapon of filthy mockery 
against Luther, who held it beneath his dignity to take 
any notice of the fellow. However, there were others 
who answered Murner instead of Luther, who himself 



128 



was not troubled by the mockery of the monk. The 
cause of the Pope and his friends was more seriously 
damaged by a book of pictures drawn by Lucas Cranacli, 
Sr., and accompanied with explanations by Luther. It 
was called "Passionate of Christ and of Antichrist." In 
twenty-six twin-pictures Christ and Antichrist appear 
face to face. In one you see Christ crowned with thorns 
and opposite to Him the Pope crowned with his tiara, 
his triple crown. In another you see the Lord washing 
the feet of his disciples, and opposite the Pope allowing 
people to kiss his foot. Under the pictures of Christ 
there are passages of scripture; under those of the Pope 
there are quotations from the Papal Decrees. 

Whilst the princes and illustrious men at Worms were 
engaged in pondering the question of life or death for 
Luther, he himself kept on in the diligent prosecution of 
his own official duties. He preached every day, basing 
his sermons upon the book of Genesis and the Gospel of 
St. John. He finished the first part of his Postil and 
continued writing his Exposition of the Psalms. As a 
service to the young Prince John Frederick he explained 
the Magnificat, the hymn of the Virgin Mary. The 
tone and spirit of this explanation is of a kind so gentle 
and loving that we can hardly persuade ourselves that it 
was written at so stormy and dangerous a time. " Faith," 
it says, "faith in its purity and completeness is that with 
which the soul holds fast to God, and perseveres in the 
love and praise of God, even then when God hides Him- 
self and withdraws the light of His countenance; it is 
that with which the soul, not inordinately desiring its 
own private gratification, is satisfied in the conviction 
that God is gracious nevertheless." 



129 



At last, in the month of March, the Diet answered 
the Edict which the emperor had submitted. The Diet 
begged the emperor to have Luther brought to Worms 
under a safe conduct in order that he might have a 
hearing before the Diet, and be required to recant his 
heretical teaching. In case, however, he should persist 
in his false doctrine, then His Imperial Majesty should 
proceed against him according to the laws against heresy. 
On March 6th, the emperor wrote his citation for Luther, 
and addressed the heretic: "Reverend, Beloved, Devout." 
Luther was required to appear at Worms within twenty- 
one days, where and when his doctrines and his writings 
would be investigated. A safe conduct to and fro would 
be granted to him. The Papal legate was infuriated by 
the style of address that headed the Citation, and he 
never got over it, for the Estates themselves laid before 
the emperor, in the name of the Germans, a long list of 
grievances against the Pope. The man who, beyond all 
others, insisted upon the abolition of Romish abuses was 
Duke George, of Saxony, the enemy of Luther. And 
after this the demand for a Council became louder and 
louder. 

On March 26th, the royal Herald, Caspar Sturm, ap- 
peared in Wittenberg and read the imperial Citation in 
the hearing of Luther. Having prepared for his journey 
forthwith, he set out for Worms on Tuesday after Easter, 
April 2d. This time he did not travel on foot. Nicholas 
Amsdorf, Peter von Swaven, a student, and Pezensteiner, 
an Augustine monk, occupied the coach with him, the 
Herald travelling in advance. The journey was more 
like a triumph than a march to the stake of martyrdom. 



130 

Everywhere the people came in crowds to meet the trav- 
ellers. Everybody wanted to see the extraordinary hero 
who had had the courage to enter the lists against the 
Pope and against the whole world that believed the Pope 
to be a God. The City Council of Leipsic honored him 
with refreshments as he passed along. The Rector and 
Professors of the University of Erfurt, numbering above 
forty horsemen, rode forth to meet him, and both citizens 
and students filled the streets with rejoicing around him. 
He tarried in Erfurt over Sunday and preached upon 
the root of all Christian doctrine, to wit: that we become 
pious and attain to eternal life not by our own works, but 
by "faith in Christ." He preached also at Gotha and at 
Eisenach, although he felt seriously unwell. The next 
Sunday he spent at Frankfort-on-the-Main where he did 
not preach, but enjoyed familiar intercourse with people 
of distinction, and in the evening cheered himself in his 
own room with singing and playing on the lute. Bad 
news had arrived from Worms. It was said that the em- 
peror had issued an order that Luther's books should be 
burnt, and that their author should be forced to recant. 
Hereupon the royal Herald asked him if he would think 
of going to Worms in defiance of this order? Luther 
wrote to Spalatin : " I learn that an imperial order has 
been issued to frighten me, but Christ lives, and we will 
go into Worms in spite of the gates of hell and in de- 
fiance of all the wicked spirits that rule in the air." In 
Worms his friends knew not what to say or do, and his 
enemies were triumphing, for the emperor had declared 
him a heretic, and a heretic has to be burnt. Spalatin 
had sent out a messenger to meet Luther, advising him 



131 

not to come, by any means, or he would meet with the 
fate of Hus. Bucer, Professor at Strasburg, came to 
Oppenheim to meet him and invited him to call at Eben- 
ourg, the Castle of Sickingen. Glapio, the emperor's 
father-confessor, had gone thither for the purpose of 
having a conference with Luther. He relied upon his 
own glibness of tongue to turn Luther right around in 
the eleventh hour. But Luther proposed to go direct on 
to Worms, and as he wrote to Spalatin, he would go there 
if there were as many devils there as there were tiles 
upon the roofs of the houses. Even if Hus was burnt 
to ashes, yet the truth was not burnt. He intimated to 
Professor Bucer that if Glapio wanted to say anything to 
him he might visit him at Worms. On April 16th, after 
a journey of fourteen days, he arrived at Worms. 

Worms, on the Rhine, is one of the oldest cities of 
Germany. It is often mentioned in the sagas of the 
German heroes of olden times. Its Cathedral existed 
already about the year 1000, and it is one of the most 
imposing specimens of architecture on the Rhine, where 
ecclesiastical edifices are so numerous. Shortly after 
the building of the Cathedral, a Jewish Synagogue was 
erected in Worms, which stands yet, and is surrounded 
by the oldest Jewish cemetery in Germany. At the 
present day a person might pass through the City of 
Worms without taking any notice of it, were it not for 
the fact that its name has forever been linked with the 
name of Luther. 

The legate, Aleander, sent word to Rome that the 
great arch-heretic had entered Worms like a prince. In 
advance came the imperial Herald clad in state, attended 



132 



by his servant; in an open coach sat Luther and his 
companions; Justus Jonas rode mounted by the side of 
the coach, then followed three counsellors of Hesse and 
about one hundred other horsemen who had gone out to 
meet and escort the Doctor. The citizens were generally 
enjoying their morning repast when the watchman on 
the tower of the Cathedral gave notice of the approach 
of Luther by a blast of his trumpet. Everybody ran out 
upon the streets to see the hero. 

Luther alighted at the Inn of St. John, where the 
Counsellors Feilitzsch and Thun and the Imperial Mar- 
shal Pappenheim had their quarters. The Elector Fred- 
erick occupied a house immediately opposite. As Luther 
entered the house he looked around and said ; " The Lord 
be with us." The adherents of Rome were startled upon 
his arrival, for they had not expected to see such spirit 
in a man against whom the Pope had hurled his ana- 
thema. On the other hand the spirit of Luther's friends 
ran high, and until late at night he was waited upon by 
counts and knights and priests. 

Before breakfast the next morning Count Pappenheim 
appeared and summoned Luther to meet the Diet at four 
o'clock in the afternoon. Soon afterwards Luther with a 
calm expression of countenance left the house to pay a 
visit of spiritual sympathy to the Knight Minkwitz, of 
Saxony, who was sick unto death. 

The Diet assembled in the afternoon. The session was 
held in the Bishop's palace at the Cathedral. The em- 
peror and his brother Ferdinand both had their quarters 
there. Pappenheim and Sturm escorted Luther before 
the assembly. The pressure of the crowds upon the street 



133 



was so great that the three had to go through the gardens 
and by circuitous ways to reach the Bishop's palace ; then 
the people climbed upon the roofs of their houses that 




George von Frundsberg. 

they might see Luther passing along. He had to wait 
in the ante-chamber until six o'clock before he was ad- 



134 



mitted. The old Field Marshal G-eorge von Fmndsberg, 
clapped him on the shoulder and said : " My young monk 
you are going a road and taking a position the like of 
which I and many a general has never ventured to do 
even under the severest strain of battle. If you are right 
and assured of your cause, then go forward in the Name 
of God and be of good cheer, God Himself will not for- 
sake you." 

Finally, Luther was conducted into the chamber, where 
he stood in the presence of the Ruler of two worlds, at 
whose right and left sat the seven Electors of the Empire 
with the Papal legates, and in the rear of this brilliant 
semicircle many princes, bishops, knights and delegates 
of imperial cities. At the foot of the throne stood John 
Eck, Chancellor of the Archbishop of Triers (not Eck of 
Ingolstadt), with a desk covered with books before him. 
Next to Luther stood the Saxon Jurists, and among them 
was Schurf, of Wittenberg. Eck informed Luther that 
he had been brought before the imperial throne for the 
purpose of answering two questions: 1. Whether he ac- 
knowledged the books now before him to be his own? 
2. Whether he would recant what these books contained, 
or would continue to maintain it? He should seriously 
consider that these books contain mischievous doctrines, 
tending to excite the spirit of insurrection among the 
people. 

Before Luther could reply, Schurf interposed, "Let the 
titles of the books be read," which was accordingly done 
by Eck. Among the books w^hich w r ere said to be full of 
mischievous and seditious doctrine were the Exposition 
of the Lord's Prayer, as also the Exposition of the Psalms. 



135 



Luther then replied with calmness of voice : " As to the 
first question of the emperor I have to acknowledge that 
these books are mine, and that I cannot deny any of 
them. Secondly, I am asked if I will maintain them all, 
or recant? This question concerns the subject of faith 
and the salvation of the soul; it bears upon the word of 
God, which is high above everything in heaven and on 
earth. To return an indiscreet answer would be pre- 
sumption and very dangerous. * * * * Therefore, 
I humbly beg that time for reflection be granted to me 
so that I may do justice to the question without danger 
to the Divine word or injury to my own soul.'' 

The emperor and the estates then had a consultation, 
and as the result of it, Eck informed Luther that he had 
himself thoroughly understood the reason why he had 
been cited to appear, and that his petition did not de- 
serve any consideration, but that nevertheless the em- 
peror of his own native goodness would grant him one 
day more for reflection, at the end of which time he must 
give his answer by word of mouth. He was then released. 
As the loud approbation of the crowd about the palace 
rose around him, Luther retired to his lodgings, a voice 
being heard among the rest saying: "Blessed is the womb 
that bare thee." 

In the Diet opinions varied. The adherents of the 
Pope murmured at the postponement. The emperor 
smiled and said that the monk would never make a 
heretic out of him, and that this awkward creature could 
never have written those books. Luther, however, upon 
reaching his lodgings sat down at his desk at once and 
wrote to his patron, the Imperial Counsellor Cuspinian 



136 



in Vienna, giving him a statement of all that had hap- 
pened through the day, and closing with the words: "I 
shall not recant an iota as Christ is gracious to me." 




On Thursday, April 18th, Luther was at the Bishop's 
palace again, and this time also he had to wait in the 
crowd for the space of two hours. The -delegate from 
Augsburg, Peutinger, had a long conversation with him, 



137 

when at last he was called in and found the hall densely 
crowded. Eck addressed him, and having rebuked him 
for the evasion of the day before, he propounded the 
question: "Will you continue to maintain all the books 
which you acknowledge to be your own, or will you re- 
cant any part of them ? " 

Luther replied in the Latin language in order that the 
emperor might understand him. He spoke distinctly, 
with simplicity, with a dignified air, and yet with all due 
reverence. He began with a request addressed to the 
emperor, that he would give his case a patient and a 
gracious hearing, because it was the cause of righteous- 
ness and truth. As to the first question, that concerned 
the books themselves, the answer that he had given the 
day before should still stand. But his Imperial Majesty 
should be careful to observe that his books were not all 
of one kind. Those books in which he had treated the 
subjects of faith and morals in a simple and evangelical 
spirit, and which had met the approbation even of his 
enemies, he could not recant without giving grievous 
offence both to friend and to foe. Neither could he re- 
cant the books which he had written against the do- 
minion of the Pope, because he would thereby be encour- 
aging tyranny and opening the flood-gates for the over- 
flow of everything that was hostile to Christianity. By 
so doing he would only make himself a cloak for villains 
and tyrants to cover up their infamy. Among the books 
that he had written against individuals who had defended 
the supremacy of the Pope, there might perhaps be some 
of a tone somewhat too violent, but as he had not been 
contending for himself and had been zealously fighting 



138 



for the doctrine of Christ, he could not recant them. 
Following the example of the Lord, who said in the 
presence of Annas, "If I have spoken evil, bear witness 
of the evil/' he would not hesitate to give attention to 
any one who could bear witness against his doctrine even 
if he was the meanest slave. He begged all and every 
one in the illustrious assembly to convince him with the 
writings of the Prophets, the Evangelists and the Apostles. 
If he were convinced of his error in any book, he himself 
would be the first to commit the book to the flames. As 
to the reproach that his books had occasioned discord 
and tumult, he was free to say that in his estimation it 
was a most happy circumstance that zeal and dissension 
are stirred up about the word of God, for the Lord Him- 
self had predicted this. If the word of God should be 
condemned at this time with the hope of thereby securing 
peace, we should have to prepare ourselves for another 
deluge, and there are many examples in sacred history 
that give us the warning. Therefore the great need is 
that men should fear the Lord. True, the high and 
mighty lords might not stand in need of his teachings 
and admonitions, but he could not be faithless to the ser- 
vice which he was bound to render to his fatherland. 
He humbly begged his Imperial Majesty and the mighty 
lords not to allow his enemies to bring reproach upon 
him, or to damage his cause. 

So far, Luther had spoken in Latin. Members of the 
Diet wished him to speak in German. Luther had be- 
come somewhat wearied, and Counsellor Thun told him 
that if he felt himself exhausted, he might stop. How- 
ever, he resumed, and repeated the whole address in his 
mother-tongue. 



139 

The emperor and the Popish party were not pleased 
with Luther's answer. They wanted to hear him say, 
"I recant," and he had even defended himself and de- 
manded proof. Eck rebuked him, and to the question : 
""Will you recant?" he demanded an answer at once 
clear and simple without horns and without disguise. 
To this demand, Luther replied, saying : " As your Im- 
perial Majesty then and your Excellencies demand a 
simple answer, I will give you an answer without horns 
and without teeth in this manner : If I am not convinced 
by proof from Holy Scriptures, or by cogent reasons — for 
I do not trust in the Pope, nor in the Councils alone, 
since it is as plain as day that they have often erred and 
contradicted themselves — if I am not convinced by the 
Holy Scriptures which I have cited, and if my judgment 
is not brought into subjection to God's Word, I neither 
can nor will retract anything, for it is both hazardous 
and dangerous to act in violation of conscience. Here I 
stand, I can say no more ; God help me ; Amen." Startled by 
these declarations that charged at once both the Pope 
and the Council with error, the emperor dismissed the 
assembly. Disorder and clamor broke forth in the hall, 
and the crowds separated in great excitement. 

As Luther, attended by several knights, was going out, 
the Spaniards of the emperor's retinue followed him with 
sneers and hisses, but the Germans on the contrary, even 
those who were of the opposite party, were pleased with 
his manly courage, and Duke Eric, of Brunswick, though 
a good Catholic, refreshed him with a drink of beer out 
of a silver goblet at the gate of the palace. At eight 
o'clock Luther had returned to the hotel of St. John and 



140 



found many friends awaiting him there. Upon entering 
the apartment where they were, he lifted up his hands 
and exclaimed cheerfully, "I'm through with it! I'm 
through with it ! " then turning to Spalatin he said : " If 
I had a thousand heads, I would rather have them all 
cut off than recant in one particular." Decapitation in- 
deed did not seem to be very remote, for the emperor 
saw very clearly that all his arts would fail to move this 
stiff-necked heretic. The Elector, upon whom Spalatin 
had called, took him aside and said: "Doctor Martinus 
delivered himself admirably in the presence of His Maj- 
esty, the emperor, the princes and the estates of the em- 
pire, both in Latin and in German, but I think he is too 
daring." 

The next day the emperor presented his decision to 
the Diet, asserting that this notorious heretic who was 
spreading abroad his opinions in conflict with the doc- 
trine of universal Christendom, had had too much for- 
bearance shown him already. He would tolerate him no 
longer. He should be conveyed back to Wittenberg in 
safety, and there he should be treated as an accursed 
heretic. Meanwhile, however, the Diet in answer to this 
decision of the emperor, determined that another effort 
should be made to induce Luther to recant. The em- 
peror yielded the point, yet he insisted that the sentence 
of outlawry should be pronounced upon Luther in case 
he should persist in his opposition. The Archbishop of 
Triers was appointed chairman of a Commission that 
was ordered to summon Luther to appear before them 
on April 24th. 

All this time Luther was waited upon by crowds of 



141 



visitors that were continually changing. Men of emi- 
nence came from abroad to see him. Duke William, of 
Brunswick, and the powerful Landgrave, Philip of Hesse, 
spent much time with him. Even two Representatives 
of the Jewish Community of Worms called upon him 
and consulted him about certain matters in the Holy 
Scriptures, testifying their regard with the gift of two 
bottles of excellent wine. A message reached him from 
Ebernberg, Sickingen's Castle, stating that if the attempt 
should be made to treat Luther with violence he would 
find that he had no lack of defenders. Reports were 
buzzing around among the people, hither and thither, 
that 400 noblemen who could present 8,000 men under 
arms, had solemnly bound themselves to protect Luther. 
A note was thrown into the bed-chamber of the emperor 
with the words: "Woe to thee, O land, when thy king is 
a child."— Eccles. 10: 16. 

Luther relied not upon man, but upon the Lord of 
Hosts, to whom he cried both day and night. One even- 
ing, whilst the affair was in progress, he prayed in his 
private chamber, and, as was his custom, with a distinct 
utterance in this manner: "Almighty, Everlasting God! 
What delusion controls the world ? How do the people 
stare with open mouth ! How little faith have they in 
God ! How soon do they give up, and rattle away upon 
the common path, the broad road to hell, having respect 
only for what is pompous and powerful and imposing! 
If I too should look in that direction that would be the 
end of me; the die would be cast and the judgment exe- 
cuted. O God, Thou art my God! Stand by me in defi- 
ance of all the reasoning and the wisdom of this world. 



142 



Thou must do it, for the cause is Thine, not mine. As 
for myself, I have nothing to do here, and no concern 
with these mighty Rulers of the earth. Hearest Thou 
not, my God? Art Thou dead? No, Thou canst not 
die, Thou only hidest Thyself. Hast Thou chosen me 
for this work? Show me how I may be certain of it. 
Yea, God has ordered it, for never in all my life would I 
have undertaken to rise up in opposition to such mighty 
potentates. * * Come to my help, come; I am ready 
to lay down my life to this work with the gentleness of a 
lamb. The work is a righteous work and it is Thine, 
and so I will never cease to cleave fast to Thee. This I 
determine in Thy name. The world must leave my 
conscience free and unrestrained, even if my body, which 
is the work of Thy hand, shall be brought to ruin. The 
soul is Thine and belongs to Thee, and dwells with Thee 
forever. Amen. God help me, Amen ! " 

On Wednesday, April 24th, at six o'clock a.m., Luther 
appeared before the Commission. The Electoral Arch- 
bishop of Triers was disposed to favor him ; he was really 
in earnest in seeking to bring the business to an amica- 
ble settlement. The other members of the Commission 
were Joachim, Elector of Brandenburg; Duke George, of 
Saxony; the Bishops of Augsburg and of Brandenburg; 
Count George, of Wertheim ; Peutinger, the delegate from 
Augsburg; and Bock, a Counsellor of Strasburg. Lu- 
ther's counsel were, Schurf, Amsdorf, Jonas and Spalatin. 
The Chancellor of Baden, Jerome Veuss (Vehus), acted 
as speaker. 

Veuss addressed Luther in quite friendly terms, and 
admitted that he had had sufficient reason for attacking 



143 



the corruptions of the church and the Papal claims of 
supreme authority; nevertheless, he added, that Luther 
had gone too far, to the extent of danger, specially, in 
condemning the councils, a thing which a Christian 
should never dare to do. Luther returned his thanks for 
this expression of good will, but defended what he had 
said about the councils. The Council of Constance had 
condemned the word of God; and he himself would 
rather die than recall anything that God had revealed in 
His word. He begged that he might not be compelled 
to deny the Divine word ; but if they could teach him a 
better doctrine by the word of God itself, he would then 
willingly give up and submit. The Elector Joachim 
then asked him, " Do I understand you correctly, Doctor, 
you cannot be convinced by any other means than by 
the Holy Scriptures?" To which Luther replied: "Yes, 
your Grace, or by clear and cogent reasons." 

The members of the Commission then held a consul- 
tation, the Archbishop still continuing to confer with 
Luther. He and his chancellor, Eck, and the theologian 
Cochlaus disputed for several hours with Luther, who, 
however, would not yield a hair's breadth. Afterwards, 
Cochlaus came and attacked Luther in his own lodgings; 
and Luther, listening patiently to what he said, answered 
him with courtesy. Dr. Veuss presented the report to 
the Diet, which, then, granted a respite of two days lon- 
ger, during which time the Archbishop did all he could 
to prevail upon Luther to give up. He, however, stood 
as firm as a rock, repeating again and again, "I cannot 
depart from the doctrine of the Holy Scriptures." Finally, 
he begged the Archbishop to obtain the emperor's per- 



144 



mission for his departure; for nothing at all could be 
done with him there. 

In the evening, the chancellor, Eck, waited upon him 
and notified him that his Imperial Majesty ordered him 
to repair to Wittenberg within twenty-one days, that his 
safe conduct would continue for that length of time, and 
that he should neither preach nor commit anything to 
writing whilst upon his journey. Luther replied : Every- 
thing has happened according to the will of God, blessed 
be His name ! He humbly thanked the emperor and 
the estates for having listened to him so patiently and 
secured protection for him upon his journey; he would 
always live as an obedient subject of the emperor, and 
would always be ready to suffer anything for the sake of 
his Majesty and of the empire. This one thing, how- 
ever, he would reserve, that the word of God should not 
be bound, and that he should have full liberty to preach 
it and to bear witness for it. Upon taking his leave, Eck 
gave Luther his hand. 

Luther knew very well that after twenty-one days the 
emperor would seek to arrest him and burn him at the 
stake as a pernicious heretic. But why should he trou- 
ble himself on that account? Hitherto the Lord had 
helped him in a wonderful manner. After Eck had re- 
tired, several gentlemen of .the retinue of the Elector 
Frederick, came and informed Luther, in confidence, that 
measures would be taken whilst he was upon his jour- 
ney to convey him to a place of safety. 

The next morning, April 26th, Luther started upon 
his journey homeward, with the same companions who 
had attended him on his ride to Worms. At Frankfort 



145 

on the Main, lie wrote to Lucas Cranach, in Wittenberg, 
and reported what had occurred at Worms, giving an 
account of the whole in this manner : " There was noth- 
ing more done than to say, Are these books yours? Yes. 
Will you recant or not? No. Then be gone ! 0, we 
blind Germans! in what a childish way do we behave, 
and let these miserable Romanists make fools and asses 
of us." At the same time he made arrangements for the 
regular discharge of the duties of his office as preacher, 
and committed this to the care of his companion, Ams- 
dorf. From Friedberg, he addressed a letter to the em- 
peror and to the estates, and placed it in charge of the 
imperial herold, who was about to leave him. In the 
dignified language of this letter he justified his bearing 
at Worms. In temporal things, which are not to be 
associated with eternal things, Christians are bound to 
exercise confidence in each other; but in the doctrines 
of the Divine word, in the eternal riches, God will not 
permit us to submit to the judgment of men. To God 
alone must we submit; and whoever depends upon man 
in the matter of his salvation, gives to the creature that 
honor which belongs to God only. 

At Hersfeld, he was received with every mark of re- 
spect by the Abbot of the Benedictine Monastery and by 
the council of the town. At their request he delivered 
them a sermon on the next morning at five o'clock. On 
May 2d, he arrived at Eisenach, where also he had to 
preach. Here he left his companions Schurf, Swaven 
and Jonas, keeping Amsdorf and the brother Petzen- 
steiner still in his compan}^ Passing through the Thur- 
ingian forest, he came to Mohra, the earlier home of his 
10 



146 



parents, and spent one day in pleasant intercourse with 
his relations. From here he set out for "Wittenberg ; but 
when the coach reached Wittenberg Luther was not in it. 

13. AT THE WARTBURG. 

On May 4th, 1521, Luther left Mohra, having passed 
the night at the house of his uncle, Heinz Luther. He 
took the road to Gotha, which led him over the wooded 
hills near the castle of Altenstein. Heinz having accom- 
panied him to this point, here bade him farewell. Lu- 
ther then proceeded on his way; but scarcely had he 
passed the hill on which the castle stood, before several 
armed riders sprang suddenly out upon him and ob- 
structed his progress. At the sight of the armed men, 
brother Petzensteiner leaped from the coach, and hid 
himself at once in the woods. The horsemen compelled 
the driver to stop and to tell them whom he had in his 
coach; then dragging Luther out they swore at him like 
troopers. Amsdorf, whom Luther had previously let 
into the secret, began to reproach the highwaymen, so 
that the driver might not understand the affair. The 
horsemen, taking no notice of these reproaches, hurried 
Luther off into the forest, far away from the road. Then, 
mounting him upon a horse, they kept on riding about 
hither and thither, until late in the night, when they 
halted at last before the gate of a castle. Luther, who 
was very tired, was accosted by the commandant of the 
castle as Squire George, and told to make himself at home. 
The next morning when the stranger looked out of the 
window of his room, he saw his behoved Eisenach spread 



147 



out before him. He was at the Wartburg, that belonged 
to his Elector. This castle of the Landgraves of Thur- 




Wartburg. 



ingia, which, in the year 1207, had been the scene of the 
contest of the great Minnesingers, was now to be, for a 



148 



considerable time, the refuge of a much more illustrious 
singer. 

It was the commandant, Hans von Berlepsch, and the 
knight, Burkhard Hund who, in obedience to the orders 
of the Elector, had waylaid and carried off the Doctor. 
Thus suddenly hurried out of the world, so to speak, Lu- 
ther had to lay aside the garb of the monk, and to as- 
sume the attire of a man of rank. Sir Hans also gave 
him instructions as to how he should deport himself. He 
had to allow his hair and his beard to remain unshorn 
and unshaved. Upon going outside of the castle, he had 
to gird on a sword, have a gold chain around his neck, 
behave like a knight, handle his beard, and carry a bold 
and confident air. A youth of noble descent was his at- 
tendant; and an experienced and reliable servant, famil- 
iar with the ways of a knight, always accompanied 
Squire George, so that no mishap might befall him. The 
commandant had him splendidly served, and Luther was 
concerned about his being the occasion of so much ex- 
pense. He often accompanied the huntsmen at the chase, 
and would occasionally make an excursion to Gotha. 
Upon his entering into a house on these occasions, he 
was apt to forget himself and lay hold of any books that 
he might observe. His servant admonished him, saying, 
that that was not in the fashion of a nobleman, for 
knighthood and scribbling had nothing to do with each 
other. If he met persons belonging to the priesthood, he 
would begin to talk about church affairs, and inquire 
about Luther, so that his attendant would have to hint 
that it was time for him to go. He went to Eisenach 
several times, and quietly visited the monks in Schalbe 



149 



College, who were his friends. The rich fare of which he 
had to partake daily, did not agree with him. He had 
been accustomed to the very simple diet of a monk, and 
now his meat and drink were the cause of all kinds of 
disorder. He bore his forced leisure very unwillingly, 
and yet the time did not seem tedious to him. His apart- 
ment, " in the region of the birds," was a good place for a 
student; and we shall presently learn what he did there. 

The news of Luther's disappearance spread through- 
out Germany like wildfire. It made a great noise in 
Worms. His friends accused his enemies of treacher- 
ously putting him out of the way, and these latter said 
that the whole affair was nothing but a sham. The 
legate Aleander wrote to the Pope that the Saxon Fox 
had carried Luther off and hip! him. The emperor held 
his peace. 

On May 8th, Charles concluded a treaty with the Pope, 
binding himself to oppose all the enemies of the Pope; 
and on the same day he issued his edict against Luther. 
This edict, however, was laid before the Diet only after 
the Electors of Saxony and of the Palatinate, and a large 
part of the members had taken their departure. It pro- 
nounced Luther to be an obdurate heretic who, as the 
devil in human form, had gathered up, into one offen- 
sive swamp, all the old heresies that had been con- 
demned, had hatched out new ones, had violated all 
laws, and was teaching the people to live after the man- 
ner of the beasts. Accordingly, the ban of the empire 
was pronounced against him. "No one is allowed to 
give him food or protection ; every man is ordered to ar- 
rest him and to deliver him up to the emperor. His 



150 



books, even if there is anything good in them, shall be 
tolerated no more; and in general, no book shall be 
printed in future without the knowledge and approba- 
tion of the spiritual authorities." This edict had been 
written by the legate of the Pope. 

In other parts of Germany, the fear generally pre- 
vailed that the good man, Luther, had fallen into the 
hands of his ungodly enemies. Many lamented him as 
dead, and among them was Albrecht Duerer, the distin- 
guished painter and friend of Maximilian. During the 
time of the Diet of Worms, he was in the Netherlands, 
and, upon hearing of the violence committed in the for- 
est of Thuringia, he wrote in his journal as follows: "0 
Lord, as Thy Son, Jesus Christ, was put to death by the 
priests so that he might rise from the dead and after- 
wards ascend to heaven, so it has been Thy will that a 
like event should befall Thy servant, Martin Luther, 
whom the Pope, a traitor against God, has, with his 
money, persecuted to death. But Thou wilt cause him 
to live again. 0, my Lord! as Thou didst afterwards 
ordain, that Jerusalem should be destroyed on that ac- 
count, so wilt Thou destroy this presumptuous, autocratic 
power of the Pope of Rome. 0, Lord! grant us then the 
New Jerusalem that comes down from heaven, adorned 
with beauty, the pure, the holy gospel, unobscured by 
any human teachings. Whoever reads the books of Mar- 
tin Luther must see, at once, how pure and transparent 
his doctrine is, in his exhibitions of the holy gospel. 0, 
God ! if Luther is dead, who will, after this, preach the 
Divine word with such simplicity and power? 0, God ! 
what might he yet have written in the next ten or twenty 
years?" 



151 



The consternation and lamentation that followed Lu- 
ther's disappearance reached its highest point at Witten- 
berg. Melanchthon, above all others, was disconsolate. 
He gave little credit to Amsdorfs account of the transac- 
tions. On May 13th, he received a letter from Patmos, as 
Luther designated his place of concealment, after Rev. 
1:9, Spalatin having made arrangements for the secret 
conveyance of letters. Transported with joy, Melanch- 
thon wrote to his friend Link: "Our dear father is yet 
alive." Luther exhorted his young co-worker to apply 
his talents for the defence of the walls of Zion against 
Antichrist, promising, that he would help him with his 
prayers. He begged that certain unfinished manuscripts 
might be sent to him, so that he might prepare them for 
the press. After this, the bearer of the correspondence 
was kept busy. To the Court Chaplain, Spalatin, the 
fidelity of whose friendship for Luther cannot be esti- 
mated too highly, he gave a picture of the life he led, as 
playing the part of a young nobleman. He had to join 
in the chase, a sort of bitter-sweet indulgence for real 
heroes, but in truth, a worthy occupation for men of lazy 
dispositions. Whilst this sport was going on, he had in- 
dulged in all kinds of spiritual reflections about how the 
souls of men are persecuted by the devil, and hunted by 
the dogs of Antichrist. In addition, he relates how he 
had been himself beset ; for, the change in his mode of 
life, his loneliness, his continual anxiety about his 
friends and his nation, made his heart sad; and at such 
times the devil would set upon him. So he said, at one 
time, that it is much harder to fight against the wicked 
spirits under the heavens, than with devils that come 



152 



upon you in flesh and blood, that is, with wicked men. 
But, he was a man of prayer and had the shield of faith, 
and always carried the sword of the Spirit in his hand. 
Therefore he could say: "Though I stumble often, yet 
the hand of the Most High holds me up." Among his 
severe temptations may be reckoned the violent desire he 
often had to leave the Wartburg, and to appear in pub- 
lic again. He contemplated making his escape to Er- 
furt, where the University had declared itself in his favor. 
Thither he would go, there he would boldly defy the 
danger. But, after all, he concluded, saying: "I shall 
not go until the Lord calls me." He was not much dis- 
turbed by the imperial edict. In one of his letters from 
the Wartburg he expressed himself thus : " I, poor brother 
as I am, have now started a new fire; I have made a 
large hole in the Pope's pocket, and what is to become 
of me? Where will they get brimstone, and pitch, and 
fire, and wood enough, to burn the venomous heretic to 
ashes? Kill him, kill him, kill him, is their cry; if I 
am worthy of it, I hope that it shall be their lot to fill 
up the measure of their fathers on me by putting me to 
death ; but the time is not yet, my hour is not yet come. 
I have to stir up the rage of the generation of vipers yet 
more deeply, and win the distinction of martyrdom at 
their hands in an honorable way." 

The Popish party soon learnt that Luther was yet 
alive. Many of them wished him back at Wittenberg 
again ; for, with all their opposition to him, they were 
confident that he was much more able to control the 
boisterous and dangerous tumults of the people,, than 
were his co-workers, who were often at their wit's end. 



153 



Shortly after his disappearance, some one wrote to the 
Archbishop of Mayence: " We have got rid of Luther as 
we wished ; but I fear that we shall not be able to save 
our own lives, unless we light our lamps and go about 
searching for him everywhere, until we bring him back 
again." 

His colleagues at Wittenberg exerted themselves most 
honorably to fill up the void occasioned by his absence. 
Melanchthon realized the extent of this void painfully. 
Upon hearing that Luther was unwell, he lamented the 
fact to Spalatin, saying: "You know with what anxious 
care we must watch over this earthen vessel in which so 
great a treasure has been deposited. If we lose it, I shall 
be tempted to fear that the wrath of God cannot be ap- 
peased. Would, that with my poor life I might purchase 
his; for, upon the earth, there is no servant of God more 
important and useful than he." He implored Spalatin 
to bring about Luther's return to Wittenberg. When in- 
formed of all this, Luther himself wrote: "Even if I 
should perish, the gospel would lose nothing, for you, 
yourself, far surpass me, and are following like another 
Elisha, strong in a double portion of the spirit of Elijah." 
He delicately reproves his disposition to complain, and 
exhorts him to work on with a good courage. At that 
time, Melanchthon was busy writing his "Loci Com- 
munes," a dogmatic work, a sketch of the Evangelical 
doctrine, of which, it has been well said, that it presents, 
in scientific form and perfectly coined and stamped, the 
pure gold that Luther had brought to light. Proofs of 
the first pages having been submitted to Luther for ex- 
amination, he perused them with delight, and wrote 



154 



back : " Go on in triumph and rule." He reminds Me- 
lanchthon of his obligation, as Bachelor of Theology, to 
give instruction in public. But, although he was accus- 
tomed to make edifying addresses to the students, still, 
he could not make up his mind, either now or afterwards, 
to engage in the regular work of preaching. 

Justus Jonas, coming from Erfurt, was added to the 
Theological Faculty at Wittenberg. The Elector ap- 
pointed him Provost of the Cathedral Church, and gave 
him the superintendence of thirty rural parishes. John 
Bugenhagen, of Pomerania, began to lecture at Wittenberg 
at the same time; and to these, Matthew Aurogallus was 
added, as professor of Hebrew. The heart of Luther was 
gladdened by this nourishing condition of his beloved 
Wittenberg, which now was becoming too small to ac- 
commodate the large number of students. 

About Ascension Day, Luther finished his exposition 
of Psalm 68, concerning the exaltation of Christ and the 
glory of His power. To the knight, Franz von Sickin- 
gen, he dedicated a short work "Concerning Confession," 
adding Psalm 119, with explanations ; and this was fol- 
lowed by a sermon on the "History of the Ten Lepers," and 
by an exposition of Psalm 37, "For the Poor, Little 
Christian Church at Wittenberg." He was reluctant to 
spend his time in controversial writing, preferring to oc- 
cupy himself in such productions as might be useful for 
the people. However, he felt that his obligations to his 
cause, which was the cause of Christ, required him to 
convince his enemies, who had been defaming the " dead 
arch-heretic," that he was still as bold and defiant as 
ever. He disposed of Latomus, in Louvain ; of Emser, 



155 



in Leipsic ; and of the proud Faculty, in Paris, as they 
deserved. The Pope had done him the honor of asso- 
ciating him with the arch-heretics Hus and AVycliffe, 
and anathematized him, together with them, in his Bull 




John Bugenhagen. 



upon the Lord's Supper. Luther returned his thanks for 
this, in a downright German answer, and gave an expla- 
nation of Psalm 10, for the benefit of the holy father. 



156 



He became deeply excited, when the Archbishop of May 
ence began to renew the traffic of indulgence. This 
abomination he could not overlook. He wrote a short 
work, though terribly severe, against the. idolatry of in- 
dulgence. The prudent Spalatin thought that the publi- 
cation of this work would be too hazardous, and the Elec- 
tor withheld his consent. Luther submitted to this, but 
only for a season. He addressed a candid letter to the 
Archbishop ; and this letter of the despised heretic, whom 
he had himself cursed, the Archbishop, who was also 
Elector and Cardinal, answered in a very humble spirit, 
thus : " My dear Doctor, I have read your letter and re- 
gard it with favor; but I have ascertained that the causes 
that induced you to write such a letter have ceased to 
exist long ago. With the help of God, I desire to act as 
becomes a pious, spiritual, Christian prince, and I hope 
that prayer will be offered for me, that this help of God 
may be granted to me. I can do nothing of myself — I 
know well, that without the grace of God there is noth- 
ing good in me, and that I am but dust, as vile as any 
other if not more vile. In replying to your letter, I will 
not refrain from these expressions, for I am more than 
willing to show you kindness and favor for Christ's sake. 
I can bear fraternal and Christian admonitions quite pa- 
tiently." What an influence had the name of Luther, 
even over mighty lords ! The Archbishop stopped the 
traffic of indulgence; but he did not abandon other sins. 
His court chaplain, Capito, of Strasburg, was a man of 
evangelical sentiments; but in his bearing towards his 
master, he was not a John the Baptist. 

At Wittenberg, Luther had begun to write a Church 



157 

Postil in the Latin language, for the use of pastors. At' 
the Wartburg he undertook the preparation of a German 
Church Postil; and whilst sojourning at "Patmos," he 
finished thirteen discourses upon the gospels and twelve 
upon the epistles. He was deeply interested in this work ; 
and when the whole Postil was finished, he said that it 
was the very best of all {he books he had ever written ; 
and the Papists themselves were glad to have it. It had 
been his object "to arrange, to prepare, and to serve the 
lessons of the gospels and the epistles in a cheerful, sim- 
ple way, and to make them easy of digestion, as a mother 
does when she prepares pap for her children." God had 
given him the talent by which he was able to bring the 
word home to the understanding, the conscience, and the 
hearts of the people, in language that was at once clear, 
simple and impressive. He understood the disposition 
of the Germans, and was more familiar than any other 
man w T ith their way of thinking. He never preached 
himself, but always appealed to his readers: "Press on 
into the word, 0, Christians! and let my explanations 
and those of other teachers serve only ias scaffolding 
for the erection of the true building; that we may lay 
hold of the pure word of God itself, relish it well, and 
therein abide, for there God dwelleth alone in Zion." 

It had been the desire of Luther's heart to place the 
word of God, in comparison with which all human teach- 
ings are but idle tales, in the hands of the Germans, and 
the crowning act which he accomplished at the Wartburg 
was the translation of the New Testament into the Ger- 
man language. Divers translations of the Holy Scrip- 
tures into the German language had existed before, but 



158 



they were not only rude and un-German in their diction, 
they were also unintelligible and inaccurate in their sub- 
stance. They had been translated from the Roman Vul- 




Luther Translating the Bible. 



gate which abounded in misleading and dangerous errors. 
Besides, these translations which existed previous to the 
time of Luther were expensive, and a common man could 



159 



hardly secure a copy. Prior to Luther's appearance very 
few people indeed really knew what the Bible was, but 
as soon as he began to speak so impressively about the 
word, men began to enquire after it; the demand kept 
on, waxing louder and louder, and it had to be answered. 
In the summer of 1521, Lange, of Erfurt, a ripe Greek 
scholar published a translation of the Gospel of St. Mat- 
thew. Luther encouraged him to go on in the work, ex- 
pressing the wish at the same time that there might be a 
translator of the Bible in every city for the tongues, the 
hands, the eyes, the ears and the hearts of all Christians 
ought to be busily employed in studying this one book. 

In his translation Luther had before him, as original 
text, the edition of the New Testament that had been 
published by Erasmus. He gave himself up wholly to 
the study of it, continually calling upon God for help. 
The Lord did help him wonderfully, for of all transla- 
tions of the Bible, even into other languages, Luther's 
translation wears the crown. It was through Luther's 
service that the Bible was made to be the most precious 
treasure of his fellow-countrymen, for no one else under- 
stood as well as he did how to use the proper word and 
how to speak the language of the people. Indeed, there 
were few who had entered so thoroughly into the very 
life of the inspired word; had such reverence, such love 
for it, and such a confident reliance upon its mighty 
power. He was specially careful to maintain purity and 
harmony in his German diction, for his object was not 
only to translate the Greek, but to present the word in 
smooth and honest German. So he made it a rule, which 
he always obeyed, never to inquire of the Greek language 



160 

now he ought to speak the German, but to go to the 
mother in the nursery, to the children on the street, to 
the common people in the market place, and catch the 
words and speech that came from them. 

It may be important to notice what kind of German 
Luther wrote. In all his writings, but specially in his 
translation of the Bible, he was careful to maintain one 
uniform style of German. At that time there had been 
as yet no distinct style of writing adopted by the authors 
of books as at the present day. Learned men preferred 
to use the Latin language. In North Germany the Low 
Dutch was spoken and occasionally written, whilst in 
South Germany the more rugged High Dutch prevailed. 
Luther used that German which had first been used in 
the government offices of Saxony, and afterwards in 
other offices of the Estates of the empire. Books on Jur- 
isprudence, written in earlier times, formed the ground- 
work of the language employed in the offices of Saxony. 
Luther did not, at all, copy after the ponderous periods 
and the intricate style of the clerks of chancery. He not 
only spoke, but also wrote in a style that was happily 
popular and indeed inimitable. He is the creator of the 
new German language as used for the writing of books. 
After the language of Rome had been bearing rule for 
centuries, the employment of German for thinking, for 
speaking and for writing was begun by him. He may 
even be regarded as the author of the German hand- 
writing. 

He bestowed so much labor and zeal upon his transla- 
tion of the New Testament that he had finished it before 
he left the Wartburg, and Spalatin and Melanchthon had 



161 

had parts of it submitted to them for examination. After 
his return to Wittenberg he reviewed the whole most 
carefully with the assistance of Melanchthon. The first 
copy was struck off by the Press of Melchior Lotther, 
Printer at Wittenberg, on September 25th, 1522. After 
July, three presses were employed, striking off 10,000 
sheets every day. 

The printed volume was a large folio, and bore the 
simple title, "Das neve Testament, Deutzsch, Vuitten- 
berg," without the name of the translator and the printer, 
and without the date. Lotther's price for the volume was 
one and a half guilder. In a few months he had to issue 
a second edition. A copy of it was printed in Basle, as 
also in other places, for the work proved to be remunera- 
tive and the demand for it was surprisingly great. Lu- 
ther had written the " Introduction " to the Epistles, the 
Revelation, and the New Testament in general. Lucas 
Cranach furnished wood-cuts as head-pieces -for the several 
books. The Introduction to the New Testament begins 
thus: "It would be right and proper for this book to go 
forth without any other name, bearing only its own name 
and speaking for itself." But to prevent confusion and 
to obviate false notions, the people should be informed 
what the New Testament is :• " It is Glad Tidings, a Proc- 
lamation spread abroad through all the world by the 
Apostles concerning the true David who has fought 
against sin, death and the devil and has overcome them, 
and so has secured deliverance for all captives without 
any merit on their part. ***** ^ e ^ no ^ 
understand the Gospel when we only get to know about 
the work and the history of Christ; we understand only 
li 



162 



then when the Divine voice comes to us and tells us that 
Christ with His life, His doctrine, His work, His death, 
His resurrection, with all that He is and has, and can 
accomplish, is indeed our own." Luther commends the 
Epistle to the Romans with special warmth, for that 
among all the Epistles was the dearest to him. He says, 
indeed, that it is the most important book of the New 
Testament, of such value and worth that a Christian 
should not only commit it to memory word for word, but 
that he should constantly feed upon it as the daily bread 
of his soul. He explains what St. Paul means by the 
words law, sin, the flesh, grace, faith, righteousness and 
spirit. He explains faith as follows : " It is a Divine work 
in us, by which we are renewed and born again of God ; 
it makes us altogether different men in heart, in spirit 
and in all our faculties. 0, what a lively, busy, active, 
mighty thing is faith ! It is impossible for faith ever to 
stop off from doing good. Such confidence in the grace 
of God makes us so happy that without any constraint 
we are willing and glad to do good to every one, to serve 
and to suffer for the love and to the praise of God who 
has shown such mercy unto us. It is therefore impossi- 
ble to separate works from faith, even as it is impossible 
to separate the powers of burning and of shining from 
fire. He who does not perform such works knows neither 
what faith is, nor what good works are." 

What Luther earnestly sought to effect was, that the 
word of God in its completeness and its purity might be 
the daily food of all who were hungering after righteous- 
ness. The time was approaching for which the popular 
preacher Eberlein had sighed, "when every Christian 



163 



would have a Bible in his house, so that every person 
who could read might study it daily more or less, turning 
his heart to God and cherishing right regards for his 
neighbor. God grant that we may live to see that day ! " 
The best testimony in proof of the necessity of Luther's 
New Testament and of its happy influence has been fur- 
nished by Cochlaeus, an adversary of Luther. He declared 
"copies of this New Testament have been multiplied to 
an astonishing amount, so that shoemakers, women and 
laymen of all classes read it, carry it about with them 
and commit its contents to memory. As the result of 
this they have within a few months become so bold 
that they have dared to dispute about faith, not only 
with Catholic laymen, but with priests and monks; yes, 
even with Magisters and Doctors of Theology. At times 
it has even happened that Lutheran laymen have been 
able to quote off-hand more passages of Scripture than 
the monks and priests themselves; and Luther has 
long ago convinced his adherents that they should not 
believe any doctrine that is not derived from the Holy 
Scriptures. The most learned Catholic theologians are 
now looked upon by the Lutherans as ignoramuses in 
the Scriptures, and here and there laymen have been 
heard to contradict the theologians in the presence of the 
people, and to charge them with preaching falsehoosd 
and things of man's devising." 

It proved to be offensive to the popish ranks that the 
New Testament had been published in such admirable 
German. Duke George, of Saxony, forthwith forbade its 
introduction into his dominions, and in this respect he 
was followed by Bavaria, Austria and Brandenburg. The 



164 



hostile Emser made an attack upon the book as though 
it was full of blunders, and set himself to work in pre- 
paring a translation for the purpose, he said, " of correct- 
ing what had been perverted, because the Scriptures were 
given to the clergy alone, and the laymen should concern 
themselves much more about leading a godly life than 
about knowing the Scriptures." When his translation 
was published it came to light that he had simply copied 
Luther's text, and here and there stuck in an error of his 
own. 

Luther's sojourn at the Wartburg terminated on March 
3d, 1522. He had secretly made a visit to Wittenberg 
the previous December, for affairs then seemed to be in 
such a state that he could not be quiet any longer. So 
he resolved to lay hold of them himself, happen what 
might. Accordingly, in his disguise as Sir George and 
attended by his servant, he set off across the country and 
reached Leipsic about noon on December 3d. In Witten- 
berg he went to the house of Amsdorf and tarried there 
three days. He was much cheered by the sight of his 
friends, and especially of Melanchthon. When Lucas 
Cranach entered he acted the part of Sir George, and 
unable to repress a smile he played with his beard. 
Cranach drew a picture of him. He was not well pleased 
with Spalatin, who he thought was cautious over-much. 
He could not venture out of doors, could do nothing but 
ask questions. Then returning to the Wartburg by the 
same route he managed to hold out there until the month 
of March. Then, however, he could no longer keep away 
from the field of battle, where the conflict was now grow- 
ing hotter and more threatening. On the third day of 



165 



March he had his horse saddled ; in token of his grati- 
tude he pressed the hand of the kind hearted command- 
ant, bade him farewell, and rode forth towards Witten- 
berg. As this was his last act of horsemanship in the 




character of Sir George, we describe it here as belonging 
to the period at the Wartburg. 

Disguised as a knight, but without attendant, he rode 
on through the country that yet retained the appearance 



166 



of winter. In the evening of March 4th, he met two 
Swiss students at the hotel in Jena, who were on their 
way to Wittenberg. One of these students, John Kessler, 
of St. Gall, has left an interesting report of this encoun- 
ter. In the hotel " The Bear," at Jena, they fell in with 
a horseman who saluted them with a friendly air, and 
invited them to come in and sit down with him, and par- 
take of the refreshments he had ordered, although they, 
on account of their muddy shoes, had taken their posi- 
tion on a bench at the door. He wore a small, red 
leather cap; his breeches and his doublet were without 
ornament; he carried a sword which he held with both 
hands, and he had a small volume lying before him. 
He recognized them as Swiss at once, and told them that 
in Wittenberg they would meet worthy countrymen of 
their own, viz.: Schurf, the jurist, and his brother the 
physician. They immediately began to ask about Mar- 
tin Luther, when he replied, he will, very probably, be in 
Wittenberg before long, adding that Melanchthon was 
there as teacher of Greek, and that there were others to 
teach Hebrew. He advised them to study these lan- 
guages faithfully, because they were necessary for the 
understanding of the Holy Scriptures. When they had 
told him that they had already been studying in Basle, 
he inquired about Erasmus. Such talk on the part of a 
cavalier surprised them. As the conversation went on, 
they felt so much at their ease that one of them picked 
up the book that lay on the table, and opening it saw 
that it was a Hebrew Psalter. The student remarked 
that he would give one of his fingers to understand that 
language, and Sir George replied that he himself wanted 



167 

to understand it better, and so kept on studying it every 
day. 

Afterwards, the landlord appeared, and having heard 
them express a strong desire to see Luther, he told them 
that they might have seen him sitting in that very spot, 
if they had been there two days before. They then ex- 
pressed their regret that the bad roads had prevented 
them from reaching Jena two days sooner, when the 
landlord called Kessler aside, took him out of the door 
and told him secretly, " that's he," who is sitting there. 
Kessler, however, took it as a joke, and his companion 
thought that the landlord must have said " Hutten," and 
Kessler understood "Luther," by mistake. Under this 
impression they continued the conversation, as they sup- 
posed, with "Hutten." 

Afterwards, two merchants arrived at the hotel. One 
of them laid down an unbound book before him; and 
when the cavalier asked him what it was, he answered: 
" It is Dr. Luther's Explanation of some of the gospels 
and epistles, just published; have you never seen it?" 
to which the cavalier replied, "I expect to get it before 
long." The landlord then called the travelers to supper, 
when the two students asked him to consider their cir- 
cumstances and to supply them accordingly. The cava- 
lier then added, "only come along, I'll pay the bill." 
During the repast he talked in a way so friendly and so 
spiritual, that the merchants and the students were 
speechless before him, and paid more attention to what 
he said than they did to the supper. Amongst other 
things, he censured the conduct of the princes who were 
then convened in Niirnberg, because, whilst they ought 



168 



to be considering the interests of the word of God and the 
grievances of the Nation, they were wasting their time in 
merry-making, in insolence and in debauchery. He then 
expressed the hope that evangelical truth would produce 
more fruit in the rising generation than it does in the pres- 
ent, in which, poisonous errors seem to be too deeply rooted. 
The conversation then turned upon Luther, when one of the 
merchants remarked, that he, being a layman, was of opin- 
ion, that Luther must be either an angel of heaven or the 
devil from hell ; and that he would willingly give ten 
guilder if he could make his confession to Luther, for he 
might be able to give him such instruction as would be 
good for his conscience. When the supper was ended 
the merchants withdrew, and then the students offered 
their thanks to the stranger, for having paid the reckon- 
ing, adding, at the same time, "you are certainly Hut- 
ten." Luther made a jest of this, and, turning to the 
landlord, remarked, that he had been created a noble- 
man. To this, the landlord replied at once, "you are 
not Hutten, but Luther." He, however, still maintain- 
ing his jesting humor, answered, "these men say that I 
am Hutten, you take me for Luther, the next man may 
take me for Markolf " — an ideal character embodying the 
sturdy, popular wit of the day. Hereupon, he arose, put 
on his military cloak, gave his hand to the students by 
way of farewell, and added: "When you reach Witten- 
berg, present my compliments to Dr. Hieronymus Schurf." 
They asked him what name they should give, so that, 
Schurf might understand the message? To this he re- 
plied, " only say this : he that is to come, sends you his 
respects, and Schurf will understand it very well." He 






1G9 

then left them and went to bed. The merchants who had 
been told that it was Luther, were looking for him early 
the next morning, intending to excuse themselves for any 
unseemly expressions they may have uttered the evening 
before. They found him in the stable busy with his 
horse. To their apologies he replied, that if they would 
ever go to Luther to make confession, they would soon 
find out whether it was he. He then mounted his horse 
and rode off towards Wittenberg. 

Whilst tarrying at Borna, near Leipsic, he addressed a 
letter to the Elector, as an additional justification of his 
departure from his place of refuge. Heroically trusting 
in the more powerful protection of God Himself, he 
reached Wittenberg on March 6th, a number of horse- 
men escorting him as he approached the end of his jour- 
ney. In the following autumu, he sent one of the first 
copies of the German New Testament to his good friend, 
the commandant of the Wartburg. 

After all, the mountain air had done him good. Kess- 
ler describes him as a man of portly mien, " of somewhat 
plump habit," erect in his movements, with shoulders 
thrown back and head turned upward; and then, "with 
deep, black eyes, that twinkled and sparkled like stars, 
so that you could hardly look straight at them." His 
expression was gentle and winning. His voice was so 
agreeable and musical, his manner of address so engag- 
ing, and his speech so full of power, that when he spoke, 
he would send such barbed arrows into the hearts of his 
hearers, that any man who was not a stone and had 
heard him once, would feel as though he wished to hear 
him always. 



170 



And so Wittenberg had its own Luther again. The 
reeling vessel felt at once that there was a strong hand 
at the helm. And it was high time. 

14. THE FANATICS. 

Hitherto, Luther had been working through the word 
alone, and had not attempted to make any change in the 
order of worship of the church. If he could have gone 
back to Wittenberg immediately, without risk, he would, 
no doubt, have maintained this principle, and let the 
word, to which he confided everything, carry on the work 
of reformation itself. Yet, his adherents were of a dif- 
ferent opinion. Luther had been violently torn from 
them ; and now they imagined that they must lay hold 
of the work themselves. But in so doing they were very 
awkward. 

In Erfurt, John Draconites, a professor, who was deeply 
interested in the cause of Luther, was driven out of the 
church by the canon, because, as a Lutheran, he came 
under the ban. This stirred up a tumult among the stu- 
dents, who visited their displeasure upon the priests and 
upon their habitations. When Luther heard of this he 
expressed his disapprobation of such disorders. He wrote 
also to his friend, Lange, Prior at Erfurt, " they who do 
these things have no connection with us." 

In Wittenberg, the Provost Bernhardi, otherwise called 
Feldkirchen, took a wife; and at the same time, two coun- 
try pastors did likewise, for which act they were impris- 
oned by the Bishop of Meissen. Luther and Melanch- 
thon defended Feldkirchen, who was a man of blameless 



171 



life. Luther took his stand upon the biblical principle, 
that the rule forbidding priests to marry was of the devil, 
as the apostle clearly teaches, and that all those who use 
the liberty secured to thern by the word, should be sus- 
tained in the enjoyment of their rights. Justus Jonas, iii 
like manner, entered into matrimony, and Luther gave 
him his best wishes. As for himself he would not entertain 
the thought of marrying, and reminded his friend Spala- 
tin of what St. Paul says, I Cor. 7: 28. 

Carlstadt had stirred up the Augustinians, the breth- 
ren of Luther's Order, to make use of their " new liberty." 
They notified the Prior that they were no longer subject 
to his control; and thirteen of them left the monastery, 
under the leadership of a young brother, Gabriel Zwilling. 
Luther wrote, in the Latin language, a discussion of the 
vow of the monks, for the purpose of instructing them 
as to the nature of this, their act, because he feared that 
they were not clear in their own minds. In this discus- 
sion, he says that God instituted marriage in order that 
man might be able to fulfil the law of chastity. If God 
has bestowed upon any one the special grace of maintain- 
ing chastity in the unmarried state, he should serve God 
thereby; yet he should not esteem that to be a merito- 
rious or a perfect work. He dedicated the preface of this 
discussion to his father, and acknowledges frankly, that 
his vow, as a monk, by which he was taken away from 
under his father, was not worth a pin. However, he con- 
tinues, God, whose mercy is boundless, and whose wis- 
dom is infinite, has brought good out of these blunders. 
He has permitted him to learn by his own experience 
what the wisdom of the schools and the sanctity of the 



172 



monasteries amount to, in order that no one could after- 
wards reproach him with condemning what he did not 
understand. He then asks his father whether he would 
yet exercise his paternal authority and deliver him from 
the life of the monk? This question he answers himself: 
" God has come before you and has delivered me Him- 
self; for what difference does it make whether I wear a 
cowl and am shorn or not? Does a cowl and a shaved 
head make a monk? Paul says, "all things are yours, 
but ye are Christ's." My conscience is clear. I am a 
monk, and yet not a monk, a new creature, not the Pope's, 
but Christ's. Yet, He who has taken me out of monkery 
has more right to me than you have. You see that it is 
He Himself who has enlisted me in the very best kind 
of service, the service of His word. Before this service 
even the authority and rights of parents must give way; 
for Christ has said: whosoever loveth father and mother 
more than me is not worthy of me. So, I trust that I 
may say, that the Lord has taken away one son from 
you for the purpose of bestowing His blessings upon 
many other sons, for which reason you should rejoice, 
and, I doubt not, do rejoice. 

The monks of the Augustine Order of the monasteries 
in Meissen and Thuringia held a convention at Epi- 
phany in the year 1522. At this meeting they resolved 
unanimously: "Those brethren who wish to continue on 
in their way of life and conduct themselves according to 
the pure doctrines of the Gospel, shall be permitted to do 
so. They who wish to devote themselves in a more per- 
fect consecration to Christ in the cloister, shall enjoy that 
liberty. Those who are competent to teach, shall give 






173 

instruction; the other brethren shall engage in manual 
labor in order that they may support themselves and 
have something left to give to the needy, for they abolish 
the practice of begging, lay off other offences and will 
follow after peace among themselves." 

Carlstadt and Z willing sought, by divers arguments, to 
prevail upon the Town Council to appoint them preach- 
ers in the parochial church. They had no call to this 
position, for Luther still considered himself, as he had 
a right to do, the pastor of the congregation, regularly 
called and duly authorized. The mass was abolished, 
the general celebration of the Lord's Supper with both 
bread and wine was introduced, and the rule was estab- 
lished that in approaching the table the communicants 
should always go in companies of twelve. Carlstadt was 
very much opposed to the preparatory confession made 
by communicants, and invited everybody to come to the 
table. Zwilling gave the communion to children of ten 
years of age. They called the pictures which had been 
displayed in the churches "idols in oil;" tore them down 
and cast them into the flames. Zwilling appeared in the 
pulpit in the dress of a student. The property of the 
church they said must be given to the poor, and loaned 
out to the members of the congregation without interest. 
The observance of fast-days was abrogated, and the disre- 
gard of good, wholesome, external discipline was advised. 
With all this zeal and this -storming and this tearing 
down, the care of souls, the work of calm and patient in- 
struction was miserably neglected, whilst a meddlesome, 
obtrusive presumption undertook to lead the way. Carl- 
stadt, conceited as he was, and swelling with pride of his 



174 

own learning, would go to the common people in their 
own homes and ask them how they understood this or 
that passage of the Holy Scripture, and of course they 
were full of wonderment to see a learned doctor go about 
amongst plain, uneducated people, asking such questions. 
To all this, Garlstadt would say, that God had hidden 
these things from the wise and prudent and had revealed 
them to babes. Carlstadt, Zwilling and More, the school- 
master, harangued the people in the open air. At first, 
they advised the people to send their children diligently 
to school in order that there might be a supply of edu- 
cated men for the office of the preacher. But now, they 
required them to keep the children away from school, 
because learning was a vain and reprehensible thing. 
The public school-house was changed into a cake-shop. 

To fill up the measure of confusion, the Zwickau Prophets 
appeared in Wittenberg about Christmas in the year 1521. 
In Zwickau, a town occupied by weavers and having 
direct dealings with Bohemia, Thomas Miinzer had raised 
a storm. He gathered a swarm of fanatics around him 
and promised with their help to accomplish the genuine 
renovation of the church. He proclaimed that the Holy 
Ghost would speak no more by the mouth of the clergy, 
but by the mouth of the people. He appointed Nicholas 
Storch and Thomas Stiibner, two weavers, as prophets, 
and his adherents chose twelve others as apostles, and 
seventy-two to be disciples of Christ. But the authorities 
interfered, and arresting the apostles and the disciples 
put them in prison, upon which Miinzer made his escape 
into Bohemia. Storch, however, stood fast and went on 
prophesying. He rejected infant baptism and talked 



' 



175 



much about lofty revelations. Upon being invited to 
have an interview with Pastor Hausman, a friend of Lu- 
ther's, and who had recently been called to Zwickau, he 
left the town and went to Wittenberg in company with 
Stiibner. 

Here Storch was able to make an impression upon the 
unsuspicious Melanchthon, and yet Philip began to be 
apprehensive as soon as they came to boast about their 
talking with God, and about their visions and their 
dreams. Storch asserted that he had seen the Archangel 
Gabriel, and that Gabriel had said to him: "Thou shalt 
sit upon my throne." He had also revealed to him that 
the church would be reformed by a greater one than 
Luther, that the whole constitution of society would be 
revolutionized, that the clergy would all be exterminated, 
and all the ungodly wiped out. He passed on through 
town and country, spreading his doctrines everywhere; 
Cellarius, a student of theology, being also associated with 
him. They denied that doctrine of the Holy Scriptures 
which Luther had preached so cheerfully and so elo- 
quently, to wit, that the atonement of Christ is all-suffi- 
cient, and they preached up the doctrine of self-righteous- 
ness and perfection in its stead. At last, they came out 
with the ruinous heresy that the Holy Scriptures are in- 
sufficient to teach us the true doctrine, but that we have 
to learn everything from the spirit, for they said if God 
had intended to teach men by written books, He would 
have sent them a Bible direct from heaven. 

Carlstadt soon formed an alliance with these men from 
Zwickau, for he saw that their views harmonized with 
his own. Melanchthon and Amsdorf were at their wit's 



176 



end, and the other professors could not agree upon any- 
definite line of action. The Elector himself was much 
perplexed. The Diet of Niirnberg had been led by Duke 
George, of Saxony, to threaten him with the imperial 
ban in case he should fail thoroughly to correct and over- 
come the confusion that was disturbing his country. To 
resort to rigorous measures was altogether repulsive to 
him, yet something must be done and that promptly. 
Many letters arrived at the Wartburg from Melanchthon 
and Spalatin. Luther replied, advising them to exercise 
patience, to have faith, and to prove the spirits. The 
Zwickau prophets did not occasion him much uneasiness, 
for he wrote : " Those characters do not move me at all." 
But he was so much the more aroused by the critical 
condition of his own congregation at Wittenberg, which 
had been hurled out of all order and control by the 
stormy movements of Carlstadt and Zwilling. He charged 
these innovators with turning things upside down, and 
with a total disregard of the infirmities of weak brethren ; 
they had despised the control of Christian love, which is 
ever patient and rejoices in hope. He had candidly ex- 
pressed his views in several letters addressed to the 
Elector, and at last notified him that he was compelled to 
return to Wittenberg, because his congregation had called 
him. The Elector replied at once, seeking to dissuade 
him from taking such a step ; but when this letter reached 
the Wartburg, Luther was already prepared to start upon 
his journey. In his answer to this letter of the Elector 
he used the following heroic language: "I am going to 
Wittenberg under the protection of a much higher power 
than that of the Elector. Yes, I maintain that I will 



177 

secure for your Electoral Grace a mightier protection 
than your Grace is able to afford to nie. This matter is 
not to be settled, neither should it be settled by the judg- 
ment and power of the sword. God alone must decide 
it without any anxious interference or cooperation on the 
part of man. Therefore, whoever has the strongest faith 
will prove to be the most powerful protector. If your 
Electoral Grace had had faith, you would have seen the 
Glory of God. But, as you have not yet believed, your 
Electoral Grace has not yet seen anything. Glory and 
praise be unto God forever. Amen." 

Upon his arrival at Wittenberg, Luther wrote to a 
friend: "In order to drive the wolf out of my fold, I have 
been compelled to throw myself right into the midst of 
the ravings of the Pope and the Emperor. According to 
human laws my enemies around me are authorized to 
kill me at sight. If Jesus Christ, under whose feet the 
Father has put all things, wills my death, His will be 
done. But if this is not His will, who then can murder 
me?" 

In Wittenberg he took his abode in the house of Schurf, 
where his friends gave him detailed reports of the state 
of affairs; where also he met the two Swiss students, 
whom he cheerfully saluted and recommended to Me- 
lanchthon. Schurf, who was of the Elector's Council, 
wrote to his master and stated that he expected every- 
thing would be adjusted now since Luther had again 
appeared upon the scene. 

For eight successive days Luther preached about the 
false and dangerous principles and conduct that had 
violently broken out. He avoided all high wrought 
11 



178 



phraseology, a thing in which Carlstadt was prone to 
indulge, and called things by their right names, testing 
them also by the word of God. Without mentioning the 
name of Carlstadt, he condemned, in very direct terms, 
the uproar and fanaticism, the violation of the law of 
Christian love, the intolerance, and the official med- 
dling and intrusion of which he had been guilty. He 
pointed out most distinctly the things that were in op- 
position to the will of God, and which for that reason 
must be abandoned, yet that their removal should not be 
undertaken with violence, but rather through the work- 
ing of the Divine word in the hearts of the people. The 
heart must first be taken captive, and that can be done 
only by the word of God. That word alone must be 
preached, and that alone will finish the work. "In a 
word, I will preach it, I will proclaim it, I will write 
about it, but I will never attempt to force any one, nor 
employ violence upon any one, for it is the property of 
faith that it has to be accepted willingly and without 
compulsion. Consider me as an example. I have been 
opposing indulgence and all the Papists, but I have 
never resorted to violence. I have been studying the 
word of God, I have been preaching it and writing about 
it, and I have done nothing more than this. Now, when 
I have been asleep, or when Melanchthon and Amsdorf 
and I have been cheerfully enjoying ourselves in com- 
pany, this preaching of the word has brought down the 
Pope to a lower degree of helplessness and occasioned 
him heavier losses than he has ever experienced at the 
hands of princes and emperors. I myself have done 
nothing; it is the word that has done and accomplished 



179 

all. If I had gone to work in a turbulent way, I might 
have set a bloody conflict raging all over Germany, I 
might have begun a game at Worms, in the progress of 
which the life of the emperor himself would not have 
been safe. But I have attempted nothing, for I have 
relied for everything upon the power of the word. Now 
what would you suppose that the devil must think when 
he sees that men undertake to prosecute this work in a 
noisy, boisterous fashion? He sits quietly in hell and 
says to himself : ' What a splendid game these fools are 
playing now!' But when we uphold the word and allow 
it to do the work alone, that is sure to be a grief to the 
devil. The word is omnipotent, it takes the hearts of 
men captive, and when their hearts are once secured, 
then the work is certain to succeed of itself." 

In his sermon upon the Lord's Supper, he maintains 
that the changes which had been introduced in its cele- 
bration were in violation of the principle of Christian 
love, and love itself should be the fruit of the Holy 
Supper. "It is pure love that we have received from 
God, for Christ with His righteousness and all that He 
has is ours. God is a glowing furnace of fervent love 
that reaches from earth to heaven. This love, I say, is a 
fruit of the Sacrament, but I cannot discover its presence 
among you at Wittenberg, although it has often been 
preached in your hearing." In his eighth sermon, he 
explains the scriptural character and wholesome effects 
of Confession, which Carlstadt had abrogated. He refers 
to Matt. 18: 15, etc., and insists upon the establishing of 
an evangelical discipline in the church. He would not 
surrender confession for all the treasures of the earth, for 



180 



he knew by his own experience what consolation and 
strength it had secured for him. " I know the devil well 
and he knows me too. If you had known him, you 
would not have abrogated confession as you have done. 
I commend you to God! Amen.' 

In fact, Luther's preaching had a wonderful effect, and 
the promptitude with which the excitement was allayed 
by his sermons and his prayers, is really astonishing. 
There was not a man to withstand him. Zwilling was 
tamed, and that so thoroughly that Luther endeavored 
to secure a pastoral charge for him. Carlstadt stopped 
preaching altogether. He was out of humor with Lu- 
ther, and wrote against him ; yet, when Luther took him 
to task about it, he denied having done so. It was with 
great satisfaction that Schurf reported to the Elector how 
happy the Wittenbergers were on account of the return 
of Luther; for, now, his earnest spirit that never tired 
and was always so practical, was bringing everything 
into complete order. The city council acknowledged his 
services by offering him a valuable gift, and when the 
results of his return came to be known at Niirnberg, the 
members of the Diet, then in session there, became at 
once more cordial in their bearing towards the Elector. 

After this change of affairs had been going on for 
about four weeks, the Zwickau prophets, Stiibner and 
Cellarius, sought an interview with Luther. To this he 
hesitatingly gave his consent ; and when they came they 
found Melanchthon in his company. Stiibner began 
with extolling Luther above the apostles, against which 
Luther protested. They began then to talk about the 
revelations that had been given to them ; whereupon he 



181 



told them that he could find no foundation for such pre- 
tensions in the Holy Scriptures; that they were nothing 
but presumptuous conceits and fancies, even the ruinous 
fancies of a lying spirit. In reply to this, Cellarius be- 
gan to cry out like a mad man, to stamp upon the floor, 
and to strike the table with his fist. Stiibner asserted 
that even God Himself could not overthrow his doctrine, 
for he had received it all by revelation from heaven. Lu- 
ther clung firmly to the doctrine which God has given 
us in His word, and maintained that, beyond what is in 
His word, God has no farther communication to make 
to us. He demanded that these prophets should prove 
their calling by some miraculous sign; and they boasted, 
with a menacing air, that they would soon answer the 
demand. They retired in a very bitter mood; and on the 
same day they left Wittenberg. In the autumn, Storch 
visited Luther. He wore the uniform of a soldier, bore 
himself in a trifling manner, and very soon withdrew. 
There were no quarters any more in Wittenberg to be 
occupied either by the Zwickau prophets, or by fanatics 
of any other kind. 

15. NEW ORDER. 

Luther did not approve of the wild, iconoclastic zeal 
of Carlstadt. Upon his resuming the duties of the pas- 
toral office, he was very careful in regard to the mode of 
public worship and the arrangements of the place of wor- 
ship, that only those practices and usages should be, at 
first, abandoned, that were in direct conflict with the 
w T ord of God. The mass, that is, the unbloody sacrifice of 



182 



Christ made by the priest, was abolished ; but a liturgi- 
cal service was not discontinued. The Holy Supper was 
administered in both kinds; and Luther warmly ex- 
horted his congregation never to approach the table in a 
heedless spirit, but that every soul should seek to be sin- 
cerely prepared for the communion. The regular usage 
of preparatory confession was restored in due season. 

In • a book under the title, " Communion in Both Kinds, 
and Other Reforms," Luther now presented to the notice of 
all Germany, the same doctrine of the Lord's Supper 
which he had preached to his congregation at Witten- 
berg. He sent copies of his eight sermons to Pastor 
Hausmann, at Zwickau, for he knew that he could make 
the best use of them in the interest of the congregation 
at Zwickau, that had been so miserably distracted by the 
fanatics. He addressed a communication to the people 
at Erfurt, in which he showed that the worship of the 
saints does not belong to the class of indifferent things. 
The bishops of Meissen and of Merseburg, made a visita- 
tion throughout their dioceses and dismissed all preach- 
ers who had embraced the evangelical doctrine. Luther 
encouraged these persecuted men to stand firm in the 
confession of the truth, and for this purpose published a 
work with the title " Of Avoiding the Doctrines of Men." He 
took a bold stand against the Roman bishops in his keen 
book entitled "Against the Falsely Called Spiritual Rank of 
the Pope and the Bishops." He claimed and established 
for Christians in general, the right of appointing a pas- 
toral office for themselves, without respect to episcopal 
ordination, to serve in the ministry of the word, which 
the bishops failed to do and even opposed. Upon this 



183 



subject he wrote two small books: "The Christian Church 
Has the Right and Authority to Decide all Doctrines, and to 
Call its Teachers," and "Of the Ordaining of the Ministers of 
the Church." 




Luther did not confine his personal activity to Witten- 
berg alone. He visited Altenburg at the invitation of its 
council; and although the Provost at Altenburg would 
not allow the gospel to be preached, yet the council 



184 



begged Luther to send them a preacher; and Luther's 
friend, Link, was called accordingly. When it became 
noised abroad that Luther would pass through Zwickau, 
the people flocked thither in such crowds that their num- 
ber was estimated at 25,000. Luther preached to the 
masses gathered together in the public square, he him- 
self standing at a window of the council chamber. Like 
crowds followed him at Erfurt, where he preached twice 
a day, in St. Michael's church. Duke John invited him 
to Weimar, where he entertained him in princely style, 
and derived unusual satisfaction from his visit. Here, 
Luther preached six times, exhibiting the fundamental 
doctrines of the gospel in great simplicity, both of 
thought and word, as he always delighted to do. He 
never advised a precipitate discontinuance of the old 
established order, but always sought first to sow the seeds 
of evangelical truth freely among the people. 

The new evangelical order prepared and opened its 
own way in Wittenberg. The public processions on Cor- 
pus' Christi day, and on the several festivals of the saints 
were discontinued, and a regular weekly service was sub- 
stituted for the daily mass. The ministers of the Castle 
Church were the only priests of the city who continued 
the Romish private mass. Their hostility to Luther 
proved to be a disadvantage to themselves; for, it led the 
students and the citizens to treat them with derision and 
persecution. 

Luther was very much concerned about "The Proper 
Order of Divine Worship," and published a small book un- 
der that title. Heretofore, there were three great abuses 
prevailing in the worship of the church under the Pope. 



185 



The word of God was kept hidden away from the people; 
unchristian fables and lies were circulated among the 
people, in legends, in ballads, in the preaching — all this 
was done with the conviction that such a service was a 
meritorious work. Hereafter, the congregation should 
never come together without having the preaching of the 
word of God, and the offering of prayer, even though the 
time so occupied had to be very short. Neither did he 
propose only the reading of the Holy Scripture ; he re- 
quired it to be preached and laid down before the people 
in its attractive, living spirit ; and for these meetings of 
the church he drew up an Order of Public AVorship. 
With great propriety he retained those parts of the an- 
cient order that were not in conflict with the gospel, and 
such as might serve for the edification of the church. 
He published a German order for the Lord's Supper, 
which became at once, and has ever continued to be, the 
ground work of the order of service in the Lutheran 
Church. Upon the first introduction of this new form in 
the service of the church, the advocates of the former 
usages opposed it as being, in their opinion, a very ordi- 
nary, miserable affair. Luther then referred these ob- 
jectors to the very lowly appearance of Christ, in contrast 
with the splendors of the Jewish temple service, and to 
the fullness and powers with which Christ might be ex- 
pected, by faith and love, to work by this new form, or- 
dinary though it seemed to be. 

Luther could not avoid bestowing much thought upon 
the introduction of congregational singing into the church ; 
and so he carefully prepared a small hymn book, which 
appeared as the forerunner of many others, about New 



186 



Year, 1524. We propose to describe in a later chapter 
the services which Luther has rendered in the depart- 
ment of Christian song, by the exercise of his extraordi- 
nary gifts as a poet and a musician. 

Luther insisted upon the use of the German language 
in the administration of pastoral acts, as he had done 
with respect to the Lord's Supper. He wrote a short 
series of instructions explaining "how a person should be 
baptized into the Christian faith, in a proper and sensi- 
ble manner," and dwelt much and often upon the im- 
portance of confession. He requested the preachers, 
Jonas and Agricola, to prepare a catechism for the young; 
they, however, accomplished nothing; for that work had 
to be done by a greater than they. 

He felt in his very heart that some new principles 
were demanded for the training of the young. He re- 
quired, first of all, that the young should be instructed in 
the Christian faith, and then also, in such matters as con- 
cerned their external life and might make them useful 
citizens. It was not alone in Wittenberg that the fanati- 
cism of the day had ruined the schools, and decried all 
human science as a dangerous enemy to the soul; but in 
many other places also it had done so much mischief, 
that the work of the student came to be regarded, both 
far and wide, as an accursed sin. This state of affairs 
was a great grief to Luther. He wrote to his friends, 
urging them to labor for the establishing of new schools : 
"There is nothing so important as the education of the 
young, and there is nothing that menaces the gospel 
with greater danger than its neglect." Accordingly, in 
the year 1524, he published his "Appeal to all the Mayors 



187 

and Councilmen of the Cities of Germany." He reminded 
them of the immense sums of money they had hitherto 
been compelled to give for the work of war and for the 
support of the Pope; and why should they not give, at 
least, a portion of such sums for the education of their 
children? If one dollar was given to carry on the war 
against the Turks, one hundred dollars would not be too 
much to be expended in bringing up a boy to be an in- 
telligent and sincere Christian. Besides, Almighty God 
has been so favorable to the Germans, has given them a 
golden year of prosperity, has raised up among them the 
ripest scholars, men rich in their attainments in lan- 
guage and art, and thus supplied ample means for the 
teaching and training of the young. "Truly we are 
most solemnly bound to be on the alert, so that we may 
not despise the grace of God and allow Him to knock in 
vain. He is at the door, and happy shall we be if we 
open to Him. He salutes us ; blessed is the man who 
answers His ' greeting. If we fail in this, so that He 
passes us by, who then shall bring Him back again? 
Let us call to mind our former misery and the darkness 
in which we were living. I believe that Germany has 
never heard so much of the w T ord of God as it hears at 
this present time ; at least, we have no record of it in his- 
tory, and if, failing in gratitude and due respect, we 
allow it to pass away, there is reason to fear that we shall 
be plunged into more terrible darkness and misery than 
ever. 0, ye Germans! buy up whilst the goods are 
offered ; make hay while the sun shines ; accept the grace 
and the word of God now whilst they are presented to 
you. You may be well assured that the word and grace 



188 



of God are a passing shower, which does not return again 
to the place where it has once been. The Jews once had 
this word ; but gone is gone, and now they have nothing. 
St. Paul carried it to Greece; but again, gone is gone; 
and now they have the Turk. Rome and Italy also, once 
had the word of God; but still, gone is gone; and now 
they have the Pope. Now, you Germans dare not natter 
yourselves that you will have this word forever; for it 
cannot remain where it is treated with ingratitude and 
contempt. Wherefore, let every man who has a hand 
to work lay hold and persevere; for the hand of the slug- 
gard can reap nothing." 

" The Lord God Himself has commanded us to teach and 
educate the children; and of all evils, the worst is the 
neglect and abuse of the precious characters of the little 
ones. The parents themselves are often so incompetent 
and so destitute of pure principle, that they cannot do 
justice to the children; and so, the civil authorities are 
bound, for their own sakes, to attend to the education of 
the young, because, the prosperity, the safety, the rights 
of the government do not depend upon its treasures and 
its walls of defence, and its thundering canon ; but upon 
its courteous, learned, intelligent, honorable citizens. 
Schools of learning are an absolute necessity for the sup- 
port of the church and the ministry of the gospel. The 
learned languages are the sheath in which the sword of 
the Spirit, the word of God, is deposited, the vessel out of 
which we drink this water of life. The reason why we 
now have the gospel almost as pure and clear as the 
apostles themselves had, is, because the learned languages 
have now come to be understood again. Wherever these 



189 



languages are known, you hear nothing that is sleepy 
and common-place in the preaching, but it is all vigorous 
and fresh; for the Holy Scriptures are thoroughly studied 
and faith always reveals itself as something new. The 
general welfare of the State depends quite as much upon 
the cultivation of the sciences; for every State and every 
community needs the presence and service of competent 
and well educated men and women. History and other 
useful branches should be taught in addition to the lan- 
guages ; and the councils of cities would show their wis- 
dom by founding libraries for the public use." 

Towards the end of his "Appeal" he says: "I entreat 
you, my dear sirs, to allow this faithfulness and diligence 
that I have shown to produce some good fruit. There 
may be some of you who will regard me as too obscure 
a character to entitle my advice to their respect, and 
some who will despise me as a man who has been cursed 
by tyrants; yet, I hope that they will take notice of this, 
that I have not been seeking to promote my own per- 
sonal interest, but have been laboring for the welfare and 
salvation of all German lands. Even if I am a fool and 
happen to hit upon what is right and good, it would be 
no kind of disgrace to wise men to follow me. Even if I 
were a Turk or a heathen, and they see that what I do 
does not help me personally but is a good service to 
Christians generally, they ought not to despise the ser- 
vice I offer." 

These admonitions did not prove to be fruitless. Their 
effect was that the civil authorities felt themselves to be 
placed in a relation of responsibility for the establish- 
ment and maintenance of evangelical schools; and wher- 



190 

ever a reformation in the affairs of the church was un- 
dertaken, there, also, similar measures were adopted in 
the interest of the schools. It was the special privilege 
of. Wittenberg to supply other cities with well qualified 
teachers for their schools ; and so Cruciger was sent to 
Magdeburg, and Agricola to Eisleben. The citizens of 
Niirnberg also founded a gymnasium or college, upon a 
plan suggested by Luther and Melanchthon. 

Amongst all the innovations that were undertaken, 
the one that was most offensive to the papists was the 
fact of the priests entering into matrimony. They at- 
tacked Luther furiously, and would not recognize the 
authority of the word of God in the matter. They re- 
newed their old habit of extolling the sanctity and glory 
of celibacy, and abused the state of wedlock as being 
adapted only to a low, common, animal nature. Luther, 
armed with the word of God, advanced with the firmness 
and boldness of a hero, to attack the ungodly doctrine of 
the papists, which taught that the taking of the monastic 
vow was a new baptism, and that monks and nuns were 
angels upon the earth. His sermon upon "The State of 
Wedlock" exalts the praises of that state which God has 
ordained and honored ; whilst, at the same time, it can- 
didly unmasks the fearful hypocrisy that distinguished 
most of the defenders of celibacy. " This state of wed- 
lock is, with great propriety, called a spiritual state, be- 
cause faith is needful in it, and is exercised every day; 
faith in the Lord, who opens His gracious hand and 
loads all who live with His benefits. The Spirit saith : 
he is a wise man who takes a wife — God foresaw this 
when he made man and woman. Even if a man is not 



191 



otherwise inclined to wedlock, yet he ought to marry for 
the purpose of showing his defiance of the devil and his 
doctrine. 

When Bugenhagen and Link were married he openly 
expressed his joy and pronounced it an honorable dis- 
tinction and a Christian virtue. As to himself he yet 
preferred the single life: " My inclinations do not bend 
at all towards matrimony, for I live daily in the expec- 
tation of death and of the well deserved punishment of a 
heretic, therefore I will not undertake to decide what the 
Lord may do with me, nor fix my heart upon anything. 
Yet my hope is that, by the will of God, I may not have 
to live much longer." 

The monks and the nuns were not so completely se- 
cluded from the world that the atmosphere of the Gospel 
could not penetrate their cells, and everywhere there 
were some whose eyes and hearts had been opened, and 
who accordingly forsook the abodes of pretended sanctity. 
Many who as "dead to the world" did not well know 
how to accommodate themselves to their newly acquired 
freedom, applied to Luther for advice and sympathy, and 
his assistance was promptly granted. He himself still 
maintained his wonted simplicity of life, occupying his 
quarters in the Augustine monastery in company with 
only one other monk, Brisger the Prior. He wore his 
cowl until October, 1524, when the Elector presented him 
with a piece of the best cloth for a new cowl or for a coat. 
"The cloth was made up into a coat, and I did this for 
the glory of God, to the joy of many friends and as an 
expression of defiance and contempt of the devil." 



192 



16. THE GOSPEL IN THE EMPIRE. 

The Pope, Leo X, died shortly after New Year, 1522, 
and was succeeded by Hadrian VI, a man of upright, 
moral character, and yet a Romanist. He was an enemy 
of Luther's, and in a verbose letter addressed to the Diet 
at Nurnberg, he predicted that all kinds of calamities 
would befall the pious nation if they would allow them- 
selves to be misled by "this one contemptible monk." 
Nevertheless he had the honesty to confess: "We are 
well aware that for a number of years our Holy See has 
been polluted by much that is to be abhorred, and it is 
no wonder that the disease has gone down from the head 
to the members. We have all of us strayed off to our 
own ways, and for a long time there has been none who 
has done good." The Diet heard this confession of the 
Pope with satisfaction, but declined to take any action 
against Luther. It rather appealed to the Pope to sum- 
mon a free Christian Council in Germany, and to allow 
the Gospel to be preached according to the teachings of 
the Fathers. Hadrian VI, dying soon and suddenly, 
could not summon the council, and his successor Clement 
VII followed in the footsteps of his relation Leo X. A 
new Diet was opened at Nurnberg in January, 1524, and 
the Papal Legate, Campeggi, informed his master that 
the majority of the Diet consisted of "great Lutherans," 
and for his part he had to be very cautious. In the 
Church of St. Sebald he had to shed tears of wrath whilst 
listening to a sermon by Osiander about the Roman Anti- 
christ. At the Easter Communion the Queen of Den- 
mark, the Emperor's sister, approached the altar and 



193 

received the Sacrament in both kinds from the hand of 
Osiander, and by her side were forty persons connected 
with the Court of the Stadtholder, Ferdinand. Ferdinand 
himself was obliged to respect the petition of the Aus- 
trians, begging permission to circulate the writings of 
Luther in the countries belonging to the crown. 

The preaching of the Gospel had been begun in Hol- 
land and Brabant, the hereditary dominions of the em- 
peror, in the year 1519. Jacob Probst and Henry Moller, 
of Zutphen, Augustine monks, preached the pure doctrine, 
though subjected to severe persecution. Finally they 
were arrested, but managing to escape, they fled to Wit- 
tenberg where they found freedom and security. Two 
young monks, Henry Voes and John Esch, were condemned 
to be burnt at the stake. They continued to be joyful in 
spirit throughout all the dreadful scene, and in the midst 
of the flames, glorified the Name of the Lord Jesus. These 
two youths have the noble distinction of being the first 
martyrs of the evangelical faith, and shortly after this 
martyrdom Luther wrote and sent an address to all 
Christians in Holland, Brabant and Flanders, in which 
he thanks God for the glorious confession which these 
young men had made. " The name of the Lord be blessed 
for ever for permitting us, who have been heretofore ex- 
alting and worshipping so many false saints, to see the 
day when genuine saints and veritable martyrs are pre- 
sented both to our eyes and to our ears. The time has 
come for that kingdom which is not in word, but in 
power. ***** Now then, as we see the tribula- 
tion before us and have such comfortable assurances, let 
us take new heart, be strong and of a good courage and 

13 



194 



submit even to be slaughtered for the name of the Lord." 
The martyrdom of the young witnesses for Christ started 
the poetic spirit that had hitherto been slumbering in 
Luther into a bright and glowing flame. We shall notice 
his first hymn, "Ein Neues Lied wir heben an," after awhile. 

Letters were often sent to Luther by knights and noble- 
men of high rank begging him to supply them with 
evangelical preachers, and it was always a pleasure to 
him when he could promptly comply. In this respect 
the inhabitants of imperial cities were by no means dila- 
tory, and among them all, Nurnberg took the lead. Here 
the preachers were Link and Osiander; here too Hans 
Sachs in the year 1523, sang his song of the " Wittenberg 
Nightingale," adding others, marked by the highest style 
of poetic beauty; here too lived and labored the illustri- 
ous artist Albrecht Diirer. As the Archbishop of Magde- 
burg was compelled to allow the preaching of the Gospel, 
Amsdorf went to that city as pastor, and Cruciger as 
rector of the school. John Hess, of Niirnberg, preached 
in Breslau, and Matthew Zell, Bucer and Capito at Stras- 
ibnrg; whilst Conrad Sam ministered at Ulm, JohnBrenz 
rat Swabian Hall, and Michael Stiefel at Esslingen. In 
Augsburg there was opposition to the Gospel, growing 
©uttof the pride of the City Council, and yet Urban Rhegius 
preached there without hinderance. The Gospel was also 
preached in Worms; in Hamburg the settled pastors 
began to preach evangelical sermons, and the Reforma- 
tion made rapid progress in Hessia, in consequence of 
the Landgrave Philip having decided in its favor. 

Yet they were not all obedient to the faith. Duke 
George, of Saxony, was full of rage and fury against the 






195 



Lord and against His Anointed, and the Dukes of Ba- 
varia carried on the persecution even unto death. Eck 
still continued in Ingolstadt and was very busy in ad- 
vocating burning at the stake. He was resisted by a 




Hans Sachs. 



woman, Argula von Grumbach, in whom Luther recognized 
a special instrument of Christ, who by this weaker vessel 
overwhelmed the wise and the mighty of the earth with 



196 



shame. The Archbishop of Mayence punished the city 
Miltenberg with great severity, because they would not 
accept the ministry of the priests any more, and Luther 
sought to comfort and encourage them by an Exposition 
of Psalm 120. As the people of Mayence had shown their 
contempt of the Gospel by calling it " a Lutheran affair," 
he makes this remark: "Although it is by no means 
pleasing to me to hear the doctrine and the people who 
believe ,it called * Lutheran/ and although I have to put 
up with it when they show their contempt of the Gospel 
by giving it my name, still they will at last have to let 
Luther and Lutheran doctrine and people alone, and see 
them come to honor." In North Germany, at Dithmarsh, 
Henry von Zutphen, who had been called from Witten- 
berg to Bremen, was, at the instigation of the monks, tor- 
tured and murdered by the peasants in the most barbar- 
ous manner. 

Prussia, the territory of the Teutonic Knights, was 
governed by the Margrave Albert, of Brandenburg, who 
had been won for the interests of the Gospel at the Diet 
of Niirnberg, and who was then seeking help to defend 
himself against the Poles who were pressing hard upon 
him. He requested Luther to send him some preachers, 
and accordingly Briesmann, Paul Speratus and Poliander 
were supplied. The two bishops of the country embraced 
the Gospel at the same time, and when King Sigismund, 
of Poland, in April, 1525, solemnly recognized Albert as 
hereditary Duke of Prussia, the Teutonic Knights cheer- 
fully submitted themselves to his evangelical authority. 
So Luther helped to lay the deep foundations of the 
Prussian State, for Albert consulted with him much and 
often concerning political affairs. 



197 



The saving doctrine of the word very soon passed out 
beyond the boundaries of the German Empire. In 1519, 
the Gospel began to be preached in Sweden and the next 
year in Denmark. Ulrich Zwingli arose in Switzerland 
and began a mighty movement against Rome and on be- 
half of the Gospel. The seed of the word grew and in- 
creased wonderfully. 

17. THE MARRIAGE. 

The liberty of the Gospel had penetrated even the quiet 
cloister of Nimtzsch, that had been occupied by a sister of 
the distinguished Dr. Staupitz and other young women, 
the daughters of prominent families of noble rank. These 
nuns humbly entreated their friends to rescue them from 
a life which, in view of the welfare of their souls, they 
could endure no longer. This entreaty, however, being 
disregarded, certain citizens of Torgau took an interest in 
their behalf, and assisted them to escape in the night of 
Easter, 1523. Afterwards other nuns were taken out 
about Whitsuntide by their own relations in accordance 
with the wishes of Luther. One of these nuns was Kath- 
arine von Bora, born January 29th, 1499. She was taken 
to the cloister as a child, and was regularly admitted as 
a nun in 1515. Upon her escape from the nunnery and 
her deliverance from her vow she found a refuge in the 
house of Reichenbach the City Clerk of Wittenberg. She 
led a retired, virtuous life. Luther saw her but rarely, 
and indeed was not favorably impressed by her, for he 
had a suspicion that she was highminded. Katharine 
was not a beauty. Her portrait presents the expressive 



198 



likeness of a German woman with a healthy, vigorous 
constitution. Her education had been quite limited, but 
her natural intelligence was abundant, and despite her 
life in the nunnery she had fine qualities as a housekeeper. 
Luther had always advised his friends to marry, but 
was not willing to think of it in his own case. Howevei\ 




Luther and his Wife. 



the older he grew the more lonesome he felt. The weight 
of his labors almost overpowered him, and he had no one 
to minister to his relief. His bed would not be made up 
for weeks, and he had to throw himself upon the hard 
couch which no friendly hand had fitted for his repose. 
In this solitary life he sometimes became melancholy, 
and indeed so utterly prostrated that it was difficult for 



199 



his friends to rouse him up. People who were merely 
his nominal friends, such as Erasmus, sought to make 
fun of him, saying that he tried to persuade others that 
the yoke of matrimony was easy, but was not willing to 
have it upon his own neck. On the other hand, Carl- 
stadt and the fanatics kept quietly watching to see 
whether he would marry, in order that they might then 
accuse him with being controlled by carnal principles. 
He was certain that the Papists would slander him and 
condemn him. On the second Sunday of Epiphany in 
1525, he preached upon the marriage at Cana. In this 
sermon he condemned the perverseness of those who 
place so low an estimate upon an institution which God 
Himself established, and which Christ honored with such 
signal distinction. A man ought to seek a wife, putting 
the full confidence of his heart in the word of God, and 
he should not allow himself to be vexed by any of the 
cares that belong to the married state. It is likely that 
this sermon made an impression upon his own mind, for 
after that time he was disposed to speak with his friends 
often about his taking a wife. His purpose was to im- 
press upon his testimony for the Divine Order of Matri- 
mony a seal that would prove to be a direct defiance of 
his enemies. He had no desire for indulging in mere 
external gratification; the circumstances of the times 
were altogether too serious for that. His desire was to 
comply with the wishes of his father, and so much the 
more, because his father had been grieved by his having 
become a monk. " Before I took a wife I had solemnly 
resolved in my own heart to do homage to the married 
state; my purpose was, that if I should come to die un- 



200 



expectedly and be laid upon my death bed, I would then 
enter into marriage with some pious Christian woman." 
So he made this a subject of earnest prayer to God. 

Luther announced that it was his intention to solicit 
the hand of Katharine yon Bora; Amsdorf having pre- 
viously directed his attention to the } r oung woman. Dr. 
Schurf, who was otherwise a good friend of Luther's, was 
startled by the information, and remarked : " If this monk 
takes a wife it will set all the world and the devil to 
laughing, and that act will upset all the works he has 
achieved." It was Luther's desire that his entrance into 
matrimony should have the virtue of a public reform- 
atory transaction. He was assured that the whole matter 
was thoroughly right and proper, and he went on with 
it in the Name of God cheerfully. On the evening of 
June 13th, he had seated around his table the artist Lucas 
Cranach and wife, the jurist Dr. Apel, Pastor Bugenhagen 
and the Provost Jonas, persons whom he had himself 
invited. No invitation had been given to Melanchthon, 
because in consequence of his nervous delicacy he had 
become worried with anxiety and perplexity. Bugen- 
hagen conducted the marriage ceremony. Jonas wrote 
to Spalatin : " Luther and Katharine von Bora have been 
joined in wedlock, and I witnessed the ceremony yester- 
day. I could not refrain from tears as I looked on. I 
cannot describe the deep emotion that agitated me at the 
time. Now, as it is done, and as God has so willed it, I 
most devoutly pray that every blessing may rest upon 
the noble, upright man, our beloved father in the Lord. 
God is wonderful in His counsel, and excellent in His 
working." 



201 

The next morning Luther invited the witnesses of the 
ceremony to breakfast, and appointed June 27th as the 
day for the formal public celebration of his marriage. 
His parents, his relations and others who were connected 
with him by the ties of special friendship were invited. 
The letters of invitation show what a great noise his 
marriage had stirred up. "The wise men have been 
fearfully excited by my marriage. It looks very odd to 
me, and I hardly believe myself that I ought to have got 
married. The Lord God has suddenly lodged me in this 
state, whilst I have been thinking all the time of some- 
thing altogether different. By entering into wedlock I 
have made myself so low and contemptible, that I trust 
the angels are smiling and the devils are howling. The 
Lord liveth, and He who is in us is greater than he who 
is in the world." The Papists raised a great outcry, say- 
ing that the marriage of a monk and a nun would result 
in the production of Antichrist. It is worthy of notice 
that the Archbishop of Mayence sent to Luther's wife 
twenty guilders in gold as a wedding present. 

On the appointed day Luther and his wife went to 
church in honor of their marriage. At the altar the 
Word of God was read to them, prayer was offered and a 
benediction pronounced upon their union. A beautiful 
gilt goblet was the present which the University offered 
to its most distinguished Professor. The city supplied 
him with wine and with a sum of money to begin house- 
keeping, and, as was the custom of the day, the guests 
and friends all brought gifts along with them. Among 
these, we may say, may have been the marriage ring — a 
circle of gold with diamond and ruby, having on the 



202 



inner surface the inscription: "What God hath joined 
together let not man put asunder." Luther still con- 




Luther's Marriage. 



tinued to occupy apartments in the Augustine monastery, 
for after the breaking up of the fraternity the property 
came into the possession of the Elector. 






203 



Luther did not at all believe that wedlock was a Para- 
dise. He knew that it was a state in which the parties 
must needs be very forbearing towards each other, and 
that it was for this reason that worldly minded people 
and those who falsely pretended to sanctity avoided it. 
In his Katie he discovered divers infirmities, and she for 
her part had sometimes to be patient in the presence of 
his vehemency. Nevertheless he thanked God for having 
bestowed this "treasure" upon him. Already, during 
the first year after his marriage, he wrote to a friend that 
his wife proved to be much better than he had ever ven- 
tured to hope, and that poor as he was he would not ex- 
change her for all the wealth of Croesus. After the ex- 
piration of twelve years he wrote cheerfully: "Thank 
God, everything has prospered with me, for I have a 
pious, faithful wife, such a one as the heart of a husband 
can safely trust in, as Solomon has said. Truly the Lord 
knows that matrimony is not a natural state, but a Divine 
Blessing, and when it turns out well the very sweetest 
and purest life that we can lead ; excelling all celibacy 
by far, but when it turns out evil then it must be hell 
itself." 

When Luther married, the times were hard. During 
the spring of that year the peasants of Swabia were ar- 
rayed in armed opposition against the nobles. The taxes 
which the nobles had to pay to the church and to the 
ruling princes, as also the increase of their own luxurious 
habits, constrained them to seek to increase their own 
revenues, and so they pressed the more heavily upon the 
peasants, and treated them like beasts of burden. To 
this was added the rapacity of tax-gatherers as they kept 



204 



prowling around, and the desolation of the country and 
the ruin of the growing crops by the hunting parties of 
the nobility. The peasants could utter their complaints 
indeed; but at that time already the civil courts had 
begun to attach much importance to written documents, 
and the peasants were not allowed to enjoy the privileges 
of citizens, for the inhabitants of the cities looked down 
upon them with contempt. 

To the peasants the preaching of the Gospel was at 
first very astonishing; afterwards they heard it very 
gladly. In their profound ignorance, however, they 
thought that spiritual freedom meant bodily freedom, 
and that this latter constituted the deliverance of the 
Christian from Babylonish captivity. At first they dis- 
played a spirit of moderation, submitting twelve articles 
to the allied princes, and begging that a Court of Equity 
might take their grievances into consideration. Among 
these twelve articles there was one to the effect that the 
peasants should have the right to choose their own pas- 
tors, who should preach the pure word of God, and that 
in consideration of this they were ready to pay the tenth. 
The peasants proposed that the Court of Equity should be 
composed of Archduke Ferdinand, the Emperor's brother; 
the Elector of Saxony; Luther, Melanchthon and some 
other preachers. The great men, however, only laughed 
at this. Yet, if they had only yielded this point of 
the Court of Equity, much misery, much shedding of 
blood might have been avoided. Luther lifted up his 
voice aloud and earnestly, pleading for the peasants, and 
teaching both the spiritual and the temporal tyrants 
some plain truths. At the same time he also warned 






205 



the peasants against rebellion and insurrection, and ex- 
plained to them what true Christian liberty amounted to. 
Both parties, however, were deaf to his appeals. The in- 
fatuated peasants finding themselves scorned by the no- 
bility broke loose, destroyed castles and monasteries and 
murdered their inmates. Horrible deeds of cruelty were 
perpetrated, and when they had once tasted blood, the 
people became so rabid that Luther with a heavy heart 
had to turn against them and appeal to the authorities 
to punish the evil doers. The host of Swabian peasants 
was annihilated at Boblingen, May 12th, by the troops of 
the allied princes. Subsequently, the supremacy of the 
nobles was established in Elsass, in the Palatinate and in 
Franconia. 

The condition of the peasants in Thuringia under the 
mild authority of Saxony was much better than that of 
the peasants elsewhere. The evil spirit of insurrection, 
however, did not spare them. Thomas Munzer, the leading 
spirit of rioters, was the agent for seducing them. This 
man belonged to the party that followed the notions of 
Carlstadt, who was always straying off further and further 
from the truth, and at last became an enemy of Luther's. 
Carlstadt despised the means of grace, the word and the 
sacraments; regarded Christ only as a model; but set 
himself up as being altogether a grand and infallible 
genius. He continued to carry on an active correspon- 
dence with the Zwickau prophets, and gloried in the cir- 
cumstance that a double portion of his " spirit " had fallen 
upon Thomas Munzer, the preacher at Allstadt. This 
man cried out against the " miserable, coarse, wearisome " 
Christians, and especially against the "lying" Luther, 



206 

and demanded of the Elector that he should exterminate 
all "ungodly, good-for-nothing and neutral Christians." 
Munzer and his associates, Pfeiffer and Strauss, roamed 
about through Thuringia preaching liberty, equality and 
fraternity; speaking of Luther only as "the lifeless, easy 
going flesh at Wittenberg." They said that the princes 
and nobles should be put to death; that their possessions 
should be divided and distributed; that the distinction 
between master and servant, between rich and poor 
should exist no longer. When Munzer was banished 
from Allstadt, the imperial city of Miihlhausen opened its 
gates to receive him, and here he introduced his princi- 
ples of social leveling. He ordered the poor to help them- 
selves to whatever they might find in the houses of the 
rich, and whatever they might want. He proclaimed in 
all directions that he had been called of God to establish 
a new government. Withersoever he and his fellow 
prophets went, they preached insurrection without fear 
or shame. The peasants and burghers of Thuringia, 
all in arms, were massed at Miihlhausen, which was 
to be the headquarters for the subjugation of the world. 
Then Luther went to work traveling through Thuringia, 
preaching, expostulating, dissuading, admonishing wher- 
ever he met with people who had been misled. His ad- 
dresses, however, were not received with favor. In some 
places indeed he was even abused and cursed, and so he 
returned to Wittenberg sadly sorrowing for the blindness 
of his people. On May 15th, the host of Munzer, in 
battle array, met the allied troops under the princes of 
Saxony, Hessia and Brunswick. Munzer endeavored to 
inflame the courage of his men by promising to perform 



207 

a miracle that would put all their enemies to flight, but 
the issue was directly the reverse. The peasants were 
beaten and their leader executed with marked severity. 
The peasant war ended in the summer; more than 100,000 
peasants lost their lives, and the survivors were more 
heavily oppressed after their subjugation than they had 
ever been before. 

When the insurrection was beginning, Luther strongly 
admonished both parties to maintain the peace, but when 
the storm broke loose, he reminded the authorities that 
they did not bear the sword in vain. When the disas- 
trous battle was over, both nobles and peasants wished 
that he was dead ; the former blaming him with having 
turned the heads of the peasants by his inflammatory 
sermons about liberty, and the latter reproaching him 
as a tool of the princes, who would be glad to bathe in 
peasant blood. The Pope addressed a letter to the Land- 
grave of Hessia complimenting him upon his victory 
over the "ungodly Lutherans," but Philip replied in an- 
swer: "The Gospel, as the doctrine of Luther must now 
be called, is never the cause of an insurrection of the 
people, because it enjoins peace upon all and inculcates 
subordination to authority." After this the princes prose- 
cuted the work of the Reformation with greater vigor. 

Whilst the peasant war was raging in Swabia and 
Elsass, Frederick the Wise, Elector of Saxony, lay upon his 
death bed. He was a lover of the Gospel. In the year 
1522, already he had issued a coin with the inscription: 
" Verbum Domini manet in seternum " (the word of the 
Lord abideth forever), and had the initials of these five 
words embroidered upon the sleeves of his courtiers. 



208 



Spalatin conversed with him daily upon spiritual things, 
and the Elector himself was a diligent student of the 
Holy Scriptures. He never saw Luther after October 
31st, 1517, but was in regular correspondence with him 
through the intervention of Spalatin. Although he 
thought that Luther was too adventurous and precipitate, 
nevertheless, he held him high in honor. Early on May 
5th, he partook of the Lord's Supper in both kinds, as it 
was instituted by Christ, and said to his assembled house- 
hold : " My dear children, if I have offended any of you, 
in word or in deed, I beg you for God's sake to forgive 
me, and I beseech you to obtain for me in the Name of 
God, like pardon from any other persons whom I may 
have injured, for we princes are prone to oppress the poor 
people in many ways, and that does no good." He had 
also sent for Luther, for whom he cherished the highest 
regard, but Luther was not permitted to see his princely 
friend alive. He departed in peace. His physician, in 
ordinary, remarked : " He was a son of peace, and so in 
perfect peace he has gone home" — the first German 
prince who died in the faith as an Evangelical Christian. 
The body of the Elector was buried at Wittenberg, Lu- 
ther having been authorized to make arrangements for 
the funeral in accordance with the Gospel. Instead of 
the ceremonies that had been usual on such occasions, a 
sum of money was distributed among the poor. Luther 
diligently and faithfully extolled the virtues of the de- 
parted prince, his wisdom, his benignity, his hatred of 
lying, his love of whatsoever was just and right. 

The deceased German Elector was quite another man 
% than Henry VIII, King of England. Henry conceited 



209 



that he was a great theologian, and undertook to demolish 
Luther's book upon the Babylonian Captivity. If it had 
depended upon offensive language the demolition would 
have been complete. In acknowledgment of this work, 
the Pope, Leo X, conferred upon him the title, " Defender 
of the Faith," and accorded ten years' indulgence to every 
person who would read the king's vituperation. Some- 
what later than this the same king cut loose from the 
Pope himself, because the Pope would not tolerate his 
polygamous practices, and so his kingdom was delivered 
from the power of Popery rather by the displeasure of its 
master than by the word of God. Luther replied to this 
royal clown in the spirit of the Proverb: "Answer a fool 
according to his folly," and yet did not fail to season his 
answer with the salt of the Divine word. Henry com- 
plained to the Elector of the monk's rugged handling, 
but Frederick the Wise was able to dispose of his English 
relative in a very graceful manner. 

In place of Henry, as the advocate of Popery, then 
came forth the " Prince of Scholars," Erasmus, of Rotter- 
dam. Erasmus had long been chagrined at the attention 
that had been paid to Luther, and he had little satisfac- 
tion in learning that the writings of Luther had found so 
many readers. The clear simplicity of Luther's style was 
distasteful, even offensive to his delicacy, that he had 
cherished so tenderly in the retirement of study. He 
had too high an idea of himself ever to approve of Lu- 
ther's doctrine of Justification by Faith alone. Encour- 
aged by Henry, the enraged king, he attacked Luther in 
his book, " On Freedom of the Will," a book abounding in 
work-righteousness and in self-conceit. In the autumn 

14 



210 

of 1525, Luther answered this distinguished opponent in 
a book entitled, "The Bondage of the Will" (Dass der freie 
Wille nichts sei), written in a style remarkable for its 
freshness and propriety. Erasmus and his numerous 
friends, among the learned who sympathized with him 
in opinion, might have found much genuine theology in 
this little book, which explains how there is nothing in 
man, and how everything must come from God through 
Jesus Christ. Human reason, highly extolled though it 
be, must give up and be brought into submission to faith. 
Erasmus was never able to do this, and in his death he 
was not sustained by the peace of God. 

18. THE TRANSLATION OF THE BIBLE. 

Whilst the New Testament was going through the 
press, Luther began the translation of the Old Testament. 
He was not willing to begin this work during his sojourn 
at the Wartburg, for the reason that he was not suffi- 
ciently versed in Hebrew. At Wittenberg, however, he 
had competent assistance in Melanchthon, and especially 
in Aurogallus, although the chief part of the work was 
done by himself. The others, perhaps, excelled him as 
grammarians, but he was distinguished for his delicate 
philological discernment that enabled him always to 
decide upon the appropriate terms promptly and with 
precision. He was an ardent admirer of the Hebrew 
language, delighting in its simplicity and its wealth of 
attractive, figurative forms. His appreciation of the ge- 
nius of the Hebrew language enabled him to render a 
German translation which, though not always quite lit- 



211 



eral, is yet invariably faithful and correct in the sub- 
ject matter, and has justified itself in the mouths of the 
people more completely than all subsequent attempts to 
produce a translation of verbal and literal precision. 

In prosecuting this work, Luther had before him a copy 
of the Hebrew Bible that had been printed in Italy in 
1494, as also the Septuagint in Greek, and the Latin 
Vulgate of Jerome. He expressed his views of the un- 
dertaking in this manner : " I frankly acknowledge that 
in translating the Old Testament into German, I have 
undertaken too much, for the Hebrew language, alas! 
has become so obsolete that even the Jews themselves 
know very little about it, and as far as I have examined 
their glosses and interpretations, they are not to be de- 
pended upon. (He refers to the Rabbis, Moses and David 
Kimchi). However, although I cannot pretend to have 
mastered everything, yet I can assert this much, viz., 
that the German Bible is in many places clearer and 
more correct than the Latin, so that the German language 
has a better Bible than the Latin language. But now, 
we may expect that the mire will stick to the wheel, and 
that there will be plenty of people who, fancying them- 
selves more competent than I am, will go on finding 
fault with my work. Very good, I let all this pass. I 
foresaw, very clearly from the beginning, that I would 
hear of ten thousand people who would condemn my 
work before I would meet with one who could do it one- 
twentieth as well as I have done. Let any man who 
claims to be so much more learned than I am, go to work 
to translate the whole Bible into German, and then let 
me know how he has succeeded. If he does it better, 



212 



why should not his work be preferred to mine? I too, 
thought to myself, that I had some learning, but now I 
have found out that I am not even master of my native 
German speech, and to this day I have never read a book, 
nor a letter that was written in pure, genuine German. 
There is no one who seems to care about speaking Ger- 
man correctly, and this is especially true of the office- 
holders, the strolling preachers, the playwrights who 
have a conceit that they are at liberty to alter and use 
the German language as they please. In short, if we 
were all to join together in the work Ave would all have 
enough to do to set forth the Bible in a clear light. One 
might help with his sound and comprehensive intelli- 
gence; another with his thorough knowledge of the lan- 
guages; even as I myself have not been doing the work 
alone, but have employed the services of every person 
whom I could possibly enlist in my help. So then I beg 
let every man stop his censures and come and help me 
as far as he can. And may God perfect the work which 
He has begun." 

Luther's translation of the Old Testament was not pub- 
lished complete at once, but appeared in several succes- 
sive parts. He feared that if the whole should be issued 
at once, the volume might be too large and too expensive. 
The printing was begun with the five books of Moses in 
January, 1523. The historical books, from Joshua to 
Esther, followed in the beginning of 1524. Job, the 
Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Canticles, forming 
the third division, followed in the same year. The book 
of Job proved to be a severe test of the patience and pen- 
etration of the translators. Referring to this, Luther 






213 




Translation op the Bible. 



214 



wrote to Spalatin: " Our interpretations seemed to be as 
little acceptable to Job as were the comfortings of his 
friends." Some time afterwards he said : " Master Philip, 
Aurogallus and I had such hard work with Job that 
sometimes we could hardly finish three lines in four 
days. Now, however, as it is put into German, every one 
can read and understand it. Whoever uses his eyesight 
can pass on and never stumble, but it may not occur to 
him what rocks and stumps we found rooted here, over 
which we had to sweat and worry before we could get 
them out of the way." 

In the year 1527, Luther was occupied in translating 
the prophetical books. His progress, however was slow, 
on account of the variety of engagements that demanded 
his attention. The book of Isaiah was not finished un- 
til October, 1529. There was no lack of inaccurate trans- 
lations, and of such as bore a very ordinary character; 
and so Luther and his friends took special pains to pro- 
duce a translation that should be distinguished for its 
excellence. He wrote thus to his friend Link: "My 
Dear Sir: What a tremendous and wearisome work it is 
to compel the Hebrew writers to talk German! How 
mightily they struggle against leaving their Hebrew 
and adopting the style of the barbarous German! It is 
as if we would compel the nightingale to forget its melody 
and adopt the horrible monotony of the cuckoo." The 
prophecies of Daniel were finished a short time before the 
Augsburg Diet, in 1530; and the remainder of the pro- 
phetical books was ready for the press in 1532. The Apoc- 
rypha had yet to be attended to. Luther had much en- 
joyment in the translation of Sirach, because, as he said: 



215 



" Sirach^ is a valuable teacher, and strong to comfort the 
common man and the heads of families, in all their di- 
verse positions." 

The whole Bible, as translated into German, by Martin 
Luther, was printed and published in the summer of 
1534. The first complete edition bore the title: "The 
Bible, that is, the Holy Scriptures, Complete, German. Mart. 
Luther, Wittenberg, MDXXXIV." As in the edition of the 
New Testament in the year 1522, so also this complete 
edition of 1534 was furnished, not only with wood-cuts, 
but also with prefaces and marginal notes written by Lu- 
ther himself. In a few months a new edition had to be 
printed. Pirated editions appeared at once, and even 
that could hardly supply the demand. Well and truth- 
fully did Melanchthon say: "The German Bible is one 
of the greatest wonders that God has wrought, by the 
hand of Doctor Martin Luther, before the end of the 
world." 

19. THE CATECHISMS. 

John, the brother of Frederick the Wise, undertook the 
government of the Electorate of Saxony, with the sincere 
purpose of ruling as an evangelical prince. He instructed 
Luther to prepare, in the German language, an order of 
public worship, that might be adopted even outside of 
Wittenberg. The Elector sent the music directors, Con- 
rad Rupf and John Walter, to Wittenberg, that they 
might render Luther their assistance in the arrangement 
of the music of the German Liturgy. Luther himself 
composed many parts of the music; and Walter was 



216 



greatly surprised at his musical talent. This German 
order was introduced into the parish church for the first' 
time on the twentieth Sunday after Trinity, in 1525. 
Luther had it published under the title, "The German Mass 
and Order of Worship Adopted at Wittenberg;" and in the 
beginning of the book he said as follows: "We send this 
forth, not because we want to lord it over anybody or as- 
sume any absolute authority, but because the Mass and 
an order of worship in the German language has been 
loudly demanded everywhere, and because great com- 
plaints and dissatisfaction have been expressed on ac- 
count of the many orders of worship that have prevailed, 
all differing from one another, each place making its own 
order, sometimes with good intentions, sometimes also 
out of sheer officiousness. He did not plead in favor of 
established forms, for the sake of people who were strong 
in the faith, but argued that the order of worship should 
be fixed and regular, "most of all on account of the 
young people, and of such as were comparatively inex- 
perienced." These classes engaged his anxious concern 
as long as he lived ; and he sought in all their " reading, 
singing, preaching, writing and thinking," to have them 
trained up under the influence of the Divine word. He 
believed that the order of worship would promote unity 
and harmony in the church, and that Christians, for 
love's sake, ought to seek to be of one mind in regard to 
it, and ought to adopt the same forms and ceremonies. 

In his "German Mass" he says: "We ought to have now 
a good, short catechism, containing the Creed, the Ten 
Commandments and the Lord's Prayer. A catechism sig- 
nifies instruction for the heathen who want to become 



217 



Christians, that teaches them what Christianity requires 
them to believe, to do, to avoid and to know. The whole 
substance of Christian doctrine, expressed in the language 
of Scripture, may be given to the children to be placed 
in two purses, the one the purse for the gold of Faith, the 
other the purse for the silver of Love. Each purse ought 
to contain two pockets. In the one pocket of the purse 
of Faith let them put those passages that teach the fall 
and corruption of man, and in the other pocket those that 
speak of our redemption through Christ. In the one 
pocket of the purse of Love they should deposit those 
passages that teach us to do good to all men; and in the 
other, those that show us how to requite the injuries we 
may receive from other persons. No one should be so 
wise in his own conceits as to think that this is mere 
child's play; for Christ became Himself a man, in order 
that He might draw men ; and so, we too, must become 
children with the children, if we would draw them." 

Luther's labors as Eeformer, were not confined to Wit- 
tenberg. The responsibility of providing orderly ar- 
rangements in all the affairs of the church throughout 
the Electorate, fell upon him. The design was, that 
everything connected with the worship, the preaching, 
the instruction of the young, the government of congre- 
gations, should be controlled by the Spirit of the gospel, 
and should so remain. He knew, too well, how deplora- 
bly these important matters had been neglected in many 
places. On October 31st, 1525, he addressed a cogent 
letter to the Elector, in which he lamented the necessi- 
ties that were pressing everywhere, both in town and in 
country, and begged him to appoint men who, as Visitors, 



218 



should inquire into the condition of ,the parishes, should 
ascertain the fitness of the clergy to discharge their du- 
ties as teachers, and should inform the congregations 
that those who labor in the word and doctrine are not to 
be deprived of their compensation, nor suffer any dimi- 
nution of it. The Elector took action at once. He au- 
thorized the introduction of the German order of worship 
in the Electorate, on Epiphany, 1526. This could be 
done without any opposition on the part of the papists; 
because the Diet of Spires, in 1526, had determined, 
though in the absence of the Emperor, " that each sov- 
ereign authority should administer affairs in its own 
dominion, in such a manner that it might be able to 
give account to God and to his imperial majesty." 

The visitation began in Thuringia, in July, 1527, be- 
ing conducted by Melanchthon, with the assistance of 
two other theologians and three electoral counsellors. 
They found that the congregations were in a more dis- 
ordered and desolate condition than they had antici- 
pated ; but this was especially the case in those congrega- 
tions in which the fanatics had had their way. At the 
request of the Elector, Luther wrote " Instructions for the 
Visitors Among the Clergy of the Electorate of Saxony," in 
1528, and described this visiting of the pastors and con- 
gregations by intelligent and experienced men, as a 
"Divine and wholesome undertaking." The "Instruc- 
tions" specified the fundamental doctrines of the gospel, 
and stated how they should be taught to the people. 
The office of superintendent, as overseer of the churches 
of a definite district, was also included in the arrange- 
ment; whilst the founding and the improvement of 



219 



schools engaged marked attention. "In all the towns, 
and all the villages, good schools ought to be provided 
for the children ; and the best scholars of these schools 
should be selected and sent to a high school, so that, in 
this way, men might be trained who may be able to ren- 
der good service to their country and their generation." 
In October, 1528, Luther himself set out upon a visi- 
tation of the churches, and continued it throughout the 
winter. He inquired into the capacity and the teachings 
of the clergy, and exhorted them to be diligent in study 
and persevering in prayer, at the same time reminding 
the congregations of their duties, and bringing the 
church property into a profitable condition. He failed 
not to inquire of the "poor peasants" wdiat they knew 
about prayer, and about the chief points of the Christian 
faith, and he instructed them in these matters as he went 
along. Upon a certain occasion when a peasant had re- 
peated the first Article of the Creed, Luther asked him 
what "Almighty" meant. The peasant answering, "I 
do not know;" Luther added: "Yes, my friend, neither 
do I; nor can all the learned men in the world tell what 
God's Almighty Power means; but do you, with a sin- 
cere heart, believe that God is your good, kind Father, 
who knows how to help you, and your wife, and your 
children in all times of need, and who can and w T ill do 
it," He also advised the pastors not to preach long ser- 
mons; for, that would be a weariness to the people. Both 
Luther and Melanchthon complained bitterly of the 
stupidity and the avarice of the people. Yet, they had 
much confidence in the Divine word, and believed that 
if it was brought home to the hearts of the hearers it 



220 



would make them bright, active and beneficent. They 
desired then that the word should be so explained that 
the people might understand it; and they believed that 
if it even failed to make any great impression upon peo- 
ple who had grown old, nevertheless it would train the 
rising generation in a better way. A good plain cate- 
chism, direct in its instructions and simple in its arrange- 
ment, was greatly needed. 

In the year 1520 already, Luther had sketched the 
general plan of a catechism in his " Brief Form of the 
Decalogue." Three years later he published a new edi- 
tion of his prayer book (Betbiichlein), in which that 
"Brief Form" was further extended; and in other edi- 
tions that followed he kept on enlarging it, by the addi- 
tion of his prefaces to the books of Holy Scripture, his 
sermons, a calendar, the History of the Passion, and other 
productions. In the spring of 1525, he committed to 
Jonas and Agricola, the task of preparing a "catechism 
for the young;" but as this resulted in nothing, Luther 
undertook to prepare a catechism himself. The Bohe- 
mian brethren had published a catechism which they 
submitted to the inspection of a Lutheran theologian for 
correction, in 1525, and which they had printed at Wit- 
tenberg. This catechism, however, was not adapted to 
the understanding or the use of children. 

In March, 1529, Luther finished his first catechism, 
which, in order to distinguish it from the second, is called 
"Luther's Large Catechism." It bore the simple title: 
"German Catechism." In the preface, the author says: 
" This instruction is undertaken and begun with the view 
of teaching the children and people of a docile spirit. 



221 




Introducing the Catechism, 1529. 



222 

The name by which the Greeks, in old times, designated 
such instruction was 'catechismos,' that is, instruction for 
children, in those subjects which, of neccesity, every Chris- 
tian must understand ; in the sense, that whoever does 
not understand them cannot be numbered among Chris- 
tians, and cannot be allowed to partake of any sacrament; 
even as among mechanics, the man who does not under- 
stand the ways and mysteries of his trade, is disowned and 
treated as incompetent. Therefore, great care should be 
taken that the youth may learn the several parts of this 
instruction, thoroughly, and diligently practice them ; and 
the head of every family ought, at least once a week, to 
question the members of his household carefully, so as to 
ascertain what they have learned." It was Luther's aim to 
furnish the pastors and the more intelligent heads of fami- 
lies with such directions and suggestions as would enable 
them so to simplify the doctrines of the gospel, that they 
might be comprehended by those who depended upon their 
instructions. This catechism contains the three chief 
divisions that are found in the " Brief Form" of 1520; and 
to these are added the two other chief divisions, to wit, the 
two Sacraments, whilst, under the division of Baptism, the 
subject of confession is impressively explained. In a new 
edition of the Large Catechism, which soon followed, there 
was "a short exhortation to confession"; and in a third 
edition, in 1530, there was an extended " Introduction," 
in which Luther justifies the continuous, diligent use of 
the catechism, as a brief summary of the whole Bible, 
over against the high pretentions of those who affected to 
despise the modest little book. Upon this subject he says: 
" I too am a Doctor and a Preacher, and as learned and 



223 



as experienced perhaps, as all those people who, in their 
own confidence, take so much upon themselves; and yet, 
I act like a little child who is learning the catechism. 
Every morning, when the time admits of it, I read and 
repeat aloud, word for word, the Ten Commandments, 
the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, several Psalms, etc., and be- 
sides, I read and meditate upon these subjects every day; 
and yet I am not as far advanced as I would like to 
be; so I keep on like a little child, learning the catechism, 
and I do it very willingly." 

In a few months, Luther's Small Catechism followed the 
large one. This too, was intended for the use of pastors 
and heads of families. Luther's desire was, that the 
children should commit to memory the explanations of 
the catechism, and be able to repeat them, in answer to 
the questions ; for, in this way they would be helped to a 
correct understanding of the chief points of Christian doc- 
trine. When they had advanced thus far, it became 
the duty of their teachers to make use of the large cate- 
chism, so as to furnish the children with more extended 
instruction. In the Preface, he informs the pastors and 
preachers, that it was the miserable, deplorable condition 
of the church which he had discovered, during his visita- 
tion, that had driven him to the preparation of this book. 
He was deeply distressed to find, that the common people, 
especially in the country, had no knowledge, at all, of 
Christian doctrine, and that there were so many pastors 
incompetent to teach them ; the people knowing nothing 
about the Lord's Prayer, the Creed, and the Ten Com- 
mandments, and living on only like their own cattle. To 
the five chief parts, Luther added morning and evening 



224 

prayers, with grace before, and after meal : " In learning, 
let each do his best, then, on the house, God's peace 
shall rest." He also appended a " Form for the marriage 
ceremony, — for the use of earnest pastors." Three of the 
chief parts were illustrated with cuts; — a picture of the 
worship of the golden calf accompanied the first com- 
mandment; the first Article of the Creed had a picture 
representing the wdrk of Creation; and under the Lord's 
Prayer there was a picture of the preaching of the Gospel, 
because it is by this preaching that God teaches us to be- 
lieve that He is our Father indeed. 

In the opinion of the author of the Small Catechism, 
and indeed, in that of all believing Lutherans, the five 
chief parts of the catechism exhibit clearly, and in a brief 
form, the whole substance of the Christian Religion, as it 
has been revealed by the Lord Himself. Luther called 
the little book a real lay-bible. The Decalogue is a doc- 
trine beyond all doctrines; for it teaches us what God de- 
mands of us, and it shows us wherein we fail. The Creed 
is^a history beyond all histories; for it tells us about the 
immeasurable, marvellous works of the Divine Majesty, 
from the beginning, on to the eternity which is yet to be. 
The Lord's Prayer is a prayer beyond all prayers, in which 
the greatest of all teachers has given expression to all of 
our spiritual and bodily needs. The Sacraments are the 
highest of all actions; for God Himself has instituted 
them, and, in them, gives us the assurance of His own 
love. 

This Small Catechism was the second extraordinary 
service which Luther rendered to his fellow countrymen, 
the Germans. The first was the translation of the Holy 






225 

Scriptures into the German language; and after this, the 
preparation of the two Catechisms was the most impor- 
tant, and in its results, the most useful work that Luther, 
under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, was able to achieve. 
It soon became plain, that the hearts of the people had 
been taken captive by the Small Catechism; and that the 
pastors and the heads of families were not the only people 
who had the little book, and were in love with it. Every 
body, in the renovated church, who was able to read, was 
determined to own the catechism ; and whoever once got 
a copy of it was thankful that he had it. In company 
with the Bible, sometimes, a little in advance, sometimes 
alongside of it, the Small Catechism moved on, like a 
hearty, virtuous, joyous youth, the noble favorite of Ger- 
man Christendom. Von Ranke, the most distinguished 
German Historian of the present day, has said with strik- 
ing propriety : " The catechism is as childlike as it is pro- 
found, as comprehensible as it is unfathomable ; it is sim- 
ple, and yet, sublime. Happy the man whose heart feasts 
upon it, and who continues to relish its refreshment! He 
has comfort in every time of need, consolation that will 
never pass away. There you find, within a delicate shell, 
the precious kernel of Truth, Truth, that must satisfy the 
wisest of the wise." 

The Elector John once spoke despondingly of the pro- 
gress of the interests of the Gospel, w T hereupon Luther 
addressed him in a letter, in which we may observe what, 
by the blessing of God, was accomplished through the 
catechism. He says to his princely friend : " The mercy 
of God has been more graciously displayed in the fact 
that He has caused His word to be so mighty and so 

15 



226 



fruitful in the dominions of your Electoral Grace, where 
the very best pastors and preachers are laboring, and 
where there are more of such men than in any other 
country in the world. Also, the tender youth, the boys 
and the girls are growing up under the influence of the 
Bible and the catechism in such a good and orderly 
spirit that it does my heart good to see that, at this time, 
little boys and girls know more about praying and about 
believing, and can tell more about God and about Christ 
than all the establishments of monasteries and schools 
ever could in former times, or can even at the present 
day. Indeed, such young people are a real paradise in 
your dominions, the like of which is not to be found 
elsewhere, as if God should say: Well, my dear Duke 
John I have placed my richest treasure in your keeping, 
my favorite paradise. Do a father's part by them ! " 

20. THE COLLOQUY AT MARBURG. 

A few weeks after the birth of Luther, Ulrich Zwingli 
first saw the light of this world at Wildhaus, a mountain 
village of Switzerland. Endowed with fine talents he 
diligently employed the years devoted to study, and after 
a thorough training he entered the pastoral office at an 
early age. At the time Martin Luther had begun to 
strike upon the doors of the Popish Church with the 
hammer of the word, Zwingli was employed as preacher 
at Einsiedeln. There was then at Einsiedeln, and it re- 
mains to this day, a dark brown, wooden image of the 
Virgin Mary, which, it was said, could work miracles. 
The pilgrims, who beyond number flocked to it, were 






227 



admonished by the preacher Zwingli to trust more in 
Christ than in the wonder-working image, and as a 
preacher of indulgence came along there too, Zwingli 
withstood him and made it too hot for him. Yet, not- 
withstanding this he continued to be in good credit with 




Ulkich Zwixgli. 



the Pope, holding an honorable office and receiving a 
salary. Indeed, it is a remarkable fact that he retained 
both the office and the salary for years even after he had 
become the Reformer of Zurich. He was called as pastor 
of the principal church in the old city of Zurich, in the 



228 



year 1519. Here he preached the word of God free and 
unreserved, and the inhabitants of the city readily ac- 
quiesced in his doctrine, whilst the Council of Two Hun- 
dred began the work of reform both in the church and 
in civil affairs. Unlike Luther, Zwingli did not confine 
himself to the office of the word, but took an active part 
in political matters, although he was deeply in earnest in 
preaching the Gospel and in striving to improve the do- 
mestic and public life of his fellow citizens. He was a 
strict churchman; he believed that the new arrangements 
which he had introduced were the only ones that were 
proper and in harmony with the Holy Scriptures, besides 
he was averse to all sectarianism. When the Anabaptists 
had worked their way into Zurich he had them arrested, 
and one of them even was drowned. He did not fail 
to meet with strong opposition and charges of heresy, 
but his experience in these respects fell far below that 
of Luther in its severity. There was, upon the whole, a 
wide difference between Luther and Zwingli. The latter 
had no experience of such agonizing, spiritual conflicts 
as the former had to encounter. The life he lived was 
calm and quiet until he began to preach and to practice 
the word of God, and as to his earning heaven by mo- 
nastic sanctity, the thought of it had never entered into 
his mind. Zwingli's experience of the evil of sin and of 
the justification of the sinner fell far short of what Luther 
had struggled through, whilst his views of original sin 
and of its criminality were not the same as those of 
Luther. He did not hold in the positive sense in which 
Luther did, that the means of grace, the word and sacra- 
ments were absolutely necessary to secure salvation, and 



229 



at the same time an assurance of salvation. From the 
beginning, Zwingli differed from Luther in his views of 
the Holy Supper, indeed not only from Luther, but from 
the inspired word itself. He was not willing to permit 
his reason to be taken captive and brought into obedi- 
ence to faith, the province of which is to confess that 
Christ the Lord Himself really imparts His true body in 
the Holy Supper. Zwingli taught that the bread and 
the wine are only memorial signs of the death of Christ, 
and that they only signify the body and the blood of 
Jesus. Luther, however, rejected the sophisms of reason- 
ing, and confessed with the Holy Scripture that the body 
and blood of Christ are really present under the bread 
and wine and are truly received. Immediately connected 
with this is the true teaching concerning the human and 
divine natures in the Person of Christ, and other doc- 
trines of the greatest importance as well. Indeed, Luther 
has said in vain: "It is the rancor and malignity of 
natural reasoning that withstands this article, the real 
presence in the Lord's Supper. After a while other peo- 
ple will begin to teach that upon the whole Christ is 
nothing at all, neither human nor divine. All the arti- 
cles of the Christian faith are connected and linked in 
with each other like a golden chain, and if you detach 
one link the whole chain is broken and goes to pieces." 

In the year 1524, Carlstadt, who had become com- 
pletely swamped in fanaticism, published a direct attack 
upon Luther's doctrine of the Lord's Supper. Zwingli 
approved of the views of Carlstadt and wrote a book 
against the Catholic doctrine, intending at the same time 
that it should bear also against the doctrine of Luther. 



230 



Though otherwise a man of such sober judgment he 
nevertheless relied for the force of his arguments upon a 
dream in which his own favorite expression, "it signifies" 
was made to have the force of truth as against Luther's 
" it is." (Ecolampadius acquiesced in the views of Zwingli, 
at which Luther was grieved, for he knew (Ecolampadius 
and had a high opinion of him. Zwingli and (Ecolam- 
padius were not content with the publishing of their 
writings, but sought by epistolary correspondence to draw 
friends of Luther over to their party. (Ecolampadius, 
himself a Swabian by birth, addressed a communication 
to the Swabian clergy, which, however, called forth a 
very keen response written by John Brenz and signed by 
fourteen Evangelical preachers. Capito and Bucer, of 
Strasburg, joined the party of Zwingli, as did also Caspar 
Schwenkfeld, of Silesia. 

Luther delayed nearly a whole year before he replied 
to the Swiss theologians. In the spring of 1526, he wrote 
a sermon upon "The Sacrament of the Body and the Blood of 
Jesus Christ against the Fanatics," and the next year he 
wrote the book: "The words, 'This is my body,' yet stand." 
In this book he maintains the Evangelical doctrines of 
the Holy Sacrament, and the union of the Divine and 
human natures in Christ with words that burn. Zwingli 
replied in a " Friendly Exposition," which, however was 
armed with quite unfriendly claws and horns, and spoke 
in terms of considerable loftiness. He, did not hesitate 
to describe Luther's teaching as ungodly and as a plague 
that would utterly ruin the Gospel. He also expressed 
his assurance that " my doctrine will triumph without a 
doubt." In another writing Zwingli addressed himself 



231 

even to the Elector of Saxony with the assertion that the 
views of Luther were the same as those of the Pope, but 
that his, that is Zwingli's doctrine, was the word of God. 
He was very diligent and earnest in his efforts to attract 
people of influence and to attach them to his party. It 
was not his object to come to a fair understanding with 
Luther, for he reveled in the prospect of victory. " Before 
three years," he boasted : " Before three years shall have 
passed, Italy, France, Spain, Germany, all will be on our 
side." 

Luther did not return to this controversy at once, for 
his bodily health demanded serious care. It was March, 
1528, before he published his book, "Martin Luther's Con- 
fession concerning the Holy Supper," and he intended that 
this should be his final refutation of the false doctrine of 
Zwingli. At the same time he sought " to make an open 
declaration of all the articles of my faith against this and 
all other new heresies, so that the heretics may never be 
able to say hereafter, or when I am dead, that Luther 
would have been of their opinion, as they have already 
said concerning several heresies." Further, he repeated 
solemnly, and in the most impressive language, the doc- 
trines he had already proclaimed, and in which it was his 
purpose, with the help of God, both to live and to die. 
On behalf of his opponents he prayed that God would 
convert them and set them free from the snares of the very 
devil, but that he for his part was not able to do anything 
more with them. His adversaries were determined to 
have the last word, and after a low, base fashion they 
made sport of him, representing him as a liar and a fool. 
In the heat of the controversy Luther had, now and then, 



232 



employed severe and rugged expressions, but to the mean 
derision that smells of the ale-house, he never allowed 
himself to resort. 

The suggestion of a colloquium between Luther and 




Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse. 

Zwingli, that had been proposed by Philip, Landgrave 
of Hesse, was not at all in the spirit of the theologians of 
Saxony. Melanchthon had serious doubts of its pro- 



233 



priety, and Luther could not see any good in it, but 
Zwingli was eager for its accomplishment. The Land- 
grave ceased not to urge the Elector to favor it, because 
political circumstances had led him to think that every- 
thing depended upon the establishment of perfect har- 
mony between the friends of the Gospel. As the Elector 
did not wish to be disobliging to his allies, he finally 
gave his consent. Luther resolved to attend the confer- 
ence, and in view of it, expressed the wish that "the 
Father of mercies, the Author of peace may bestow the 
gift of the Holy Spirit that we may not come together in 
vain, but that our conference may result in good and do 
no damage to the cause of the truth." Zwingli promptly 
arrived at Marburg, September 29th, 1529, at the castle 
of which city the conference was to be held. He was ac- 
companied by (Ecolampadius, Bucer, Hedio and certain 
counselors of the cities of Zurich, Basle and Strasburg. 
The next day Luther arrived in company with Melanch- 
thon, Jonas, Cruciger and Myconius. Within the same 
week Brenz, Osiander and Stephen Agricola, of South 
Germany, also reached Marburg; whilst many people 
from countries on the Rhine and from Switzerland 
crowded together to attend the disputation. 

The transactions began with private interviews between 
Luther and (Ecolampadius, and between Melanchthon 
and Zwingli, on October 1st. Early on the next day a 
conference was held in the presence of witnesses; the 
Landgrave of Hesse, Ulrich, the exiled Duke of Wurtem- 
berg, with a number of theologians and of the nobility 
being in attendance. Luther, Melanchthon, Zwingli and 
(Ecolampadius, occupied seats at the same table; and 



234 



Luther opened the discussion. He solemnly declared 
his conviction, that what he had written about the Lord's 
Supper was the truth; that if (Ecolampadius and Zwingli 
had anything to offer against the truth, he would attend 
to what they had to say and would refute it ; that he, for 




Luthers Colloquy with Zwingli about the Holy Supper. 

his part, would stand upon the words, "this is my body," 
because, here we are bound to maintain the letter. He 
had already chalked these words upon the table where 
he sat. 



235 



These transactions were continued throughout the 
whole of the first and second days. There were no new 
points of doctrine introduced, but the old questions were 
thoroughly discussed, the disputants not being, as pre- 
viously, widely separated, but meeting face to face. It 
was Zwingli's desire to conduct the conference in the 
Latin language, but Luther wished to use the German 
alone; and this was agreed upon. Zwingli resorted to 
every argument that could be devised, so as to twist 
around the meaning of the words of institution. To all 
his arguments however, Luther returned only one answer, 
to-wit. : that those words are, of themselves, sufficient, 
and that we are bound to be satisfied with them as they 
stand, pointing at the same time with his finger, to the 
words which he had chalked upon the table. At last, 
(Ecolampadius and Zwingli were asked whether they 
had anything more to say, to which they replied, that it 
would be in vain for them to say anything more. Lu- 
ther rejoined that they had not proved anything, and 
that their own consciences must witness that such was 
the fact. The Hessian counselor, Feige, then called 
upon both parties to devise and agree upon ways and 
means for their common union; but Luther replied that 
he knew of no other way than that the other party should 
give glory to the word of God, and agree in the faith 
that was maintained by himself and his friends. Zwingli 
protested against Luther's imputations, because their 
doctrine was much more firmly based upon the word of 
God, and because they had explained to Luther that his 
doctrine was false. The conference ended with expres- 
sions of good friendship. Afterwards, the Landgrave 



236 



brought about several private interviews between the op- 
posite parties, in connection with which, the Strasbur- 
ger, Bucer, acted like a knave; for which reason Jonas 
and Brenz had to handle him with severity. Neverthe- 
less, Luther complied with the wishes of Zwingli, to write 
an article in explanation of the several points in which 
both parties were agreed. He drew up the Marburg Arti- 
cles, a confession containing fifteen propositions relating 
to the Trinity, the Person of Christ, Original Sin, Faith 
and Justification, The Word of God, Baptism, Good 
Works, Confession, Civil Authority, Church Order, Infant 
Baptism, The Lord's Supper. Zwingli and his friends 
adopted fourteen of the propositions; but they wanted 
to change the 15th, which referred to the Lord's Supper. 
Zwingli urged Luther to recognize them as brethren, and 
to agree that each party should admit the other to the 
table of the Lord. In Luther's estimation, the one propo- 
sition which they refused to adopt was of such import- 
ance as to justify his refusing to give them the fraternal 
hand; and he was constrained to say to them: "You 
have a different spirit ;" and he was astonished to find, 
that although they had charged him with gross error in 
doctrine, they were nevertheless willing to own him as a 
brother. From all this he inferred that they did not 
themselves attach much importance to their own doc- 
trine. In the end, the following addition was made to 
the 15th proposition: "Although for the present time, we 
have not come to a perfect agreement as to the real pres- 
ence of the body and blood of Christ in the bread and 
wine, nevertheless, each party, under the dictates of con- 
science, will cherish and treat the other party in Christ- 



237 



ian love; and both parties will importunately implore 
Almighty God to grant us His Holy Spirit, and to con- 
firm us in the right understanding of His truth. Amen." 
These propositions or articles were subscribed on Octo- 
ber 4th, 1529; and on the following day the theologians 
left Marburg. 

Zwingli had hardly reached his home before he began 
to trumpet abroad his "victory" over the "shameless and 
stiff-necked " Luther. That fraternal hand, which he had 
so willingly offered to Luther, bent the cross-bow again 
at once. A civil war broke out in Switzerland in 1531, 
between the Reformed in Zurich, and the old Popish 
Cantons. Zwingli went forth upon the field of battle and 
lost his life. The more gentle QEcolampadius died at 
Zurich in the same year. Luther could not act other- 
wise than as he did towards Zwingli, the Divine text was 
too mighty. 

21. COBURG CASTLE. 

In the Spring of 1526 the Emperor Charles V had 
brought his war with Francis I, King of France, to a suc- 
cessful termination. Francis and Charles made a contract, 
binding them to unite their arms, in common opposition, 
against the enemies of Christianity, the Turks and the 
Lutherans. Charles summoned a Diet to convene at 
Spire, in the Rhein Palatinate, for the purpose of thor- 
oughly exterminating " the wicked affair of Lutheranism." 
But the plans of Charles amounted to nothing. The Pope 
absolved the King of France from his oath, and the Turks 
overwhelmed Hungary. Charles could not come to Spire 



238 



himself; and his representative was compelled to admit 
John of Saxony, and Philip of Hesse, as Evangelical 
Princes, members of the Diet. Neither could he prevent 
the Diet from taking such action as had a favorable bear- 
ing upon the Evangelical cause. The Emperor was again 
engaged in warlike operations, and he summoned a Diet 
to convene again at Spire, in the spring of 1529. The 
orders of the Emperor, issued to the several imperial Es- 
tates, sounded altogether harshly; and an unreserved 
bowing down under the old papal yoke was absolutely 
demanded. So, on April 19th, John of Saxony, Philip of 
Hesse, George of Brandenburg, Ernst of Luneburg, "Wolf- 
gang of Anhalt and fourteen imperial cities united in lay- 
ing a Protest before the Diet. They declared that, in 
matters concerning the glory of God and the salvation 
of souls, their consciences required them to reverence God 
the Lord, above all, and that, therefore, they could not 
yield obedience to the demands that had been made upon 
them. From this day, and out of this heroic protestation 
it was, that the name Protestants originated. The vice- 
regent representing the Emperor, did not accept the pro- 
testation, and threatened its authors with punishment. 
The Evangelical Princes and cities then, formed a league 
for their own defence; Luther however, admonished them 
not to take up arms against the imperial majesty, and not 
to rely upon their own strength. His heroic hymn "Ein' 
feste Burg ist unser Gott !" (A Mighty Fortress is our God) 
written at the time, reveals what his feelings and his po- 
sition were in the presence of the threatening peril. 
Zwingli, on the other hand, sought to fire up the Protest- 
ant Estates to make war against the Emperor. He com- 



239 



plained that Luther had hindered the operations of the 
League; he offered his far-reaching support to the King 
of France, and in his teaching concerning the civil au- 
thority, he had a different spirit from that of Luther. 
Far other were the views that Luther entertained respect- 
ing the Emperor, although the Emperor had condemned 
and outlawed him. The Turks had forced their way- 
through as far as Vienna, and bore hard upon the forces 
of the Emperor; and at once, Luther's heroic sermon 
against the Turks, and his admonition to the Evangelical 
Princes to sustain the Emperor, who had sought to do him 
harm, was sent flying, all through the land. 

Again, Charles V became reconciled with the Pope, 
who placed the crown upon his head, at Bologna, Febru- 
ary 24, 1530; having previously obtained the promise of 
Charles, to root out the heretics. In April 1530 the Em- 
peror summoned a Diet to convene at Augsburg, and an- 
nounced his intention to come to Germany. The lan- 
guage of his proclamation was quite friendly and pacific, 
saying: "that with the view of taking such counsel as 
might heal the existing dissensions, the Estates should lay 
off the mutual aversion that had hitherto separated them, 
should give up their former errors, in obedience to the 
will of the heavenly Saviour, and giving diligent attention, 
should hear and thoughtfully consider their several views 
and opinions, all in love and in kindness ; in order that 
harmony and Christian truth might be established, and 
that whatever had been improperly set forth or trans- 
acted by either party might be corrected or removed." 
These Christian utterances awakened nothing but anxiety 
in the hearts of the friends of the Gospel; for they were 



240 



quite familiar with the Emperor's skill in the art of dis- 
simulation. It had been the fond hope of the Elector 
that a free expression of opinion would be allowed ; he 
thought that the Diet might even amount to a German 
Council. So, he instructed his theologians to arrange all 
the articles bearing upon the controversy, and state them 
in such a manner, that whatever he and his brethren in 
the faith might be able to admit, before God and with a 
good conscience, should be settled and determined prior to 
the opening of the Diet. The theologians addressed them- 
selves to their work without delay, taking the Schwabach 
Articles, that had been carefully prepared in October, 1529, 
as its foundation. These 17 articles of Schwabach were 
an elaborate revision and expansion, by Luther, of the 15 
Marburg Articles, to which an important article concern- 
ing the Church was added, as follows: " There is no doubt, 
that there is and ever remains, upon earth, until the end 
of the world, a holy Christian Church, as Christ says, 
Matthew 28 : 20 ; this Church is no other than believers 
in Christ, who believe and teach the foregoing articles 
and doctrines, and who, for that reason suffer persecution 
and martyrdom in the world ; for, wherever the Gospel 
is preached and the Sacraments are rightly used, there is 
the Christian Church, and it is not bound by laws or by 
outward pomp, to any place or to any time, or to the per- 
son and rank of any man." 

The Emperor delayed his arrival, and so the Elector 
was in no haste to reach Augsburg. He spent Easter at 
Coburg, where Luther preached twice in his presence, 
upon the text appointed for the festival, and having no 
reference to the Diet. It was here in Coburg that Me- 



241 



lanchthon, with Luther at his side, began once more, to 
draw up the document which the Elector had desired to 
have, as a confession and justification of himself and his 
brethren in the faith, the object of this revision being to 
present the whole in perfect harmony. 

On April 22d, the Elector received a letter from the 
Emperor requiring him to hasten his departure for Augs- 
burg; so he set out upon his journey without delay. He 
was attended by George Spalatin, Justus Jonas, John 




Coburg Castle. 



Agricola and Philip Melanchthon. Luther, who had 
been outlawed, remained behind in Coburg. He was 
taken to the castle before the break of day, where he was 



16 



242 



to remain and write to the Elector. He was, also, to 
allow his beard to grow and play the part of a knight. 

Luther was delighted with the Coburg. On the day 
of his arrival at the castle he wrote to Melanchthon: 
" We have reached our Sinai, but we propose to make a 
Zion out of this Sinai; and here we shall erect three 
tabernacles, one for the Psalter, one for the Prophets and 
one for iEsop." He found that the location of the castle 
was beautiful, and that it was favorable to study. Spa- 
cious apartments were prepared for his accommodation ; 
and a young magister from Niirnberg, Veit Dietrich, and 
his nephew, Cyriacus Kaufmann, from Mansfeld, were 
his companions. The noise of the city did not reach the 
level of his lofty apartments ; but there was a chirping 
and a revelling ever kept up in all the bird-life of the 
forests around. This he enjoyed hugely; and he wrote 
a sportive letter to his familiar friends in Wittenberg, 
which we give in full, because it affords us a view of Lu- 
ther's natural humor. 

" There is a thicket right in front of us, under our win- 
dow, like a little forest. Here the jack-daws and the 
rooks are holding a Diet; and there is such a coming 
and going, such a screeching day and night, without 
ceasing, that you would think that they were all drunk, 
and frantic in their intoxication. The old birds and the 
young ones are all mixed up together; and I wonder to 
hear how long their voices and their breath can hold 
out. I would be glad to be informed whether you have 
any nobility and any troopers of this stripe still left in 
your parts, for it seems to me that they have gathered 
together here from all the rest of the world. I have not 



243 



seen their emperor as yet, but the nobles and the great 
lords are always floating and lounging about before our 
eyes. Their attire is not exactly costly, rather plain, and 
they wear only one color. They are all alike black, and 
all have gray eyes alike; they all sing the same song, 
too, yet with an agreeable difference between the older 
and younger ones, the larger and smaller. They do not 
show much respect for imposing palaces and spacious 
halls ; for the hall in which they assemble is over-arched 
by the beautiful expanse of heaven ; its floor is the natu- 
ral soil, tessellated with pretty sprigs ; and its walls reach 
to the end of the world. Neither are they much con- 
cerned about steeds, or about armor; for they move 
about on feathered wheels, and so they can escape the 
danger of the rifle and the wrath of man. They are 
great and mighty lords ; but what they have resolved to do 
I have not, as yet, discovered. I have, however, learned 
this much from an interpreter, that they contemplate 
making a determined raid and war upon wheat, barley, 
oats, malt, and all kinds of corn and grain; and there 
will be many a noble knight among them who will 
achieve great things. So, here we are, listening and 
looking on with deep interest, as the princes and lords 
and high estates of the empire sing their songs and en- 
joy themselves before us. 'Tis especially amusing to see 
after what a lordly fashion they wag their tails and wipe 
their beaks, and burnish their armor, so that they may 
triumph and acquire fame in their assault upon corn 
and malt. AVe wish them the good luck of being im- 
paled, all together, upon a hedge stake. I, for my part, 
hold, that it is nothing else than the Sophists and the 



244 



Papists, with their preaching and their writing, who are 
gathered together before me in this manner, all in one 
crowd, so that I may be able to hear their fine voices and 
their excellent sermons, and understand what a very use- 
ful sort of people they are, and how they swell them- 
selves up with courage by way of pastime." 

Personally, indeed, he had to keep far away from the 
Diet; yet he wished that his voice should be heard in 
that august assembly. During the first weeks of his so- 
journ at the Coburg, he wrote his "Admonition to the 
Clergy," as also his "Confession for the Present Diet, 
Again Revised," in which confession the Schwabach arti- 
cles were included. Yet, he had other engagements in 
which he took more interest. He built a tabernacle for 
the prophets, having finished the translation of Jere- 
miah into the German language, and begun the transla- 
tion of Ezekiel. He made a new translation of Psalm 
118, and accompanied it with explanatory notes. He 
wrote verse 17, "I shall not die but live, and declare the 
works of the Lord," with notes for the appropriate music 
upon the walls of his apartment. The third tabernacle 
he had proposed to build was intended for iEsop. The 
fables of this Greek, whom people commonly suppose to 
have been deformed, he translated at the Coburg, adding 
a preface in which he said : " With regard to the exter- 
nal life of the world, in addition to the Holy Scriptures, 
there are, as far as I know, not many books that are 
superior to this one, if the value of books is to be meas- 
ured, not by their loud and extravagant boasting, but by 
their utility, and the skill and wisdom they contain. 
In this book, under the cover of its plain speech and its 



245 



simple fables, you may find the very best doctrine and 
admonition and instruction, if you only know how to 
make use of it, as to all the relations of the household, 
and as to the obligations which civil rulers and their sub- 
jects owe to each other, so that in the midst of the wicked 
generations of this evil world, you may be able to lead a 
quiet and peaceable life." He expressed the spirit of the 
fables in German proverbs, the rich treasures of which 
he always had at his command. The change in his 
mode of living, which he had to adopt during his sojourn 
at the castle, was followed by many inconveniences, even 
its loneliness affected him unfavorably, and under these 
circumstances the visits of Pastor Koch, of Coburg, who 
became, for the time, his confessor, and administered the 
Hol} r Supper to him, were altogether refreshing. He 
wrote to Melanchthon, often, and advised him to be more 
careful of his health, so as not to commit suicide and 
then plead that it was done in obedience to the will of 
God. Melanchthon was not satisfied with the work he 
had done at Coburg, and now was engaged for w T eeks in 
improving and polishing it. On May 11th, he sent to 
Coburg a draught of the Apology, as the Augsburg Con- 
fession was most generally called at that time. On the 
15th, Luther returned this draught, and added : " I am 
well pleased with it. I cannot see that I could improve 
it or change it in anything. Indeed, it would not be 
proper for me to attempt it, for I cannot tread so gently 
and tenderly. Christ our Lord grant that it may bring 
forth a rich abundance of precious fruit, as we hope and 
pray." 

Many letters passed to and fro, between the Elector 



246 



and Luther. The Elector refused to comply with the in- 
sinuation of the Emperor, to the effect, that he should 
forbid his clergy to preach in Augsburg; for, as he said: 
" It is a dangerous thing to give up the word of God and 
His truth;" and besides, he could not dispense with the 
preaching, for his own part. 

For several weeks no courier had passed from Augs- 
burg to Coburg. Then the first letter that Luther re- 
ceived informed him of the death of his venerable father, 
Hans Luther, of Mansfeld. "Now my father is dead," 
said he to Veit Dietrich, then, taking his psalter in his 
hand, he retired straightway to his chamber, seeking re- 
lief in tears. He wrote to Philip: "The death of my 
father has brought me into profound sorrow, for I have 
been attached to him, not only by the ties of nature, but 
also by the bonds of the sweetest love. It was through 
this, my father, that my Creator made me what I am and 
gave me what I have; and although I find much com- 
fort in the assurance that he fell asleep in peace and that 
he was strong in the faith in Christ, my grief and sor- 
row, as I call to mind what most precious intercourse I 
used to enjoy with him, has so disturbed my spirit that 
I think that I never had -such a contempt of death as I 
have now. Yet, the righteous is taken away from the 
evil to come, and he enters into his rest. We die often 
before we die the once." ***** 

The citizens of Wittenberg were not so stupid as 
were the Augsburgers. Hieronynms and Peter Weller, two 
brothers, took up their abode in Luther's house for the 
protection of his wife. The former was the tutor of Lu- 
ther's son, little Hans, and regularly reported to the Doc- 



247 

tor the progress of affairs in his family, receiving the re- 
freshing, playful letters of the venerated Doctor in return. 
Once, there arrived, among others at "Wittenberg, a short 
letter addressed to young Hans himself. Though this 
letter is already so well known, yet we cannot omit it in 
this present work, for it belongs directly to the portrait- 
ure of Luther, and unfolds a very attractive feature of his 
character. 

"Grace and peace in Christ, my dear little son. I am 
always glad to hear that you are learning well, and that 
you keep on faithfully in your prayers. That is right, 
and now continue on in the same way ; and when I come 
home I will bring you something pretty from the fair. 
I know about a pretty pleasure garden, where many chil- 
dren are allowed to enter; and they wear little coats 
adorned with gold, and they gather beautiful apples un- 
der the trees, and pears, and cherries, and plums; and 
they sing for delight, and jump about and are so glad ; 
and besides, they have beautiful little ponies with golden 
bridles and silver saddles. I asked the man who owns 
this garden whose children these were, and he told me 
that these were children that like to pray, and to learn, 
and to be good. Then I said, dear sir, I have a son too, 
his name is Hans Luther, may he come into this garden 
too, and be allowed to eat these fine apples, and pears, 
and ride such nice ponies, and play with these children? 
Then he answered, if he is willing to pray, and to learn, 
and to be good, then he may come into my garden, and 
Lippus, (Melanchthon's son) and Jost (Jonas' son), may 
come too; and when they all come they shall have fifes, 
and kettle-drums, and lutes, and all kinds of stringed in- 



248 



struments of music, and they may dance about and shoot 
with little cross-bows. But it was early and the children 
had not yet had their breakfast; so, as I could not wait 
for their dancing, I said to the man : My dear sir, I will 
go right away and write all this to my dear little son, 
Hans, so that he may pray faithfully, and get his lessons 
well, and be good, that he may come into this garden too. 
But he has an aunt, Lena; he must bring her along with 
him; and then the man said, yes, of course, go and tell 
him so. Now then, my dear son, Hans, learn your les- 
sons, and pray with good spirit, and tell Lippus and Jost 
to do the same; and then you can all come together into 
the garden. So, I commend you to Almighty God. Give 
my respects to Lena and also a kiss for me. Anno 1530. 
Your loving father, Martin Luther." 

At last the "silent gentlemen at Augsburg" began to 
say something. Melanchthon strongly urged Luther to 
write to Philip of Hesse, who was giving too much atten- 
tion to the suggestions of the Zwinglians. He tossed the 
anxieties of his own quaking heart off upon the breast 
of his mighty and heroic friend. Luther wrote in return, 
not in the language of delicate consolation, but in keen 
terms, reproving Melanchthon's pusillanimity: " I heartily 
abhor the anxieties that are consuming you ; if they have 
the control of your heart, it is not because of the magni- 
tude of the work that we have undertaken, but because 
of the greatness of your unbelief. * * * * and if our 
work were even twice as great, great is He who carries it 
on, and who even began it, for it is not our work. If it 
is wrong then we will recant, but if it is right why do we 
make Him a liar in His promises? for it is His will that 



249 



we should be of good courage, yes, that we should even 
take our rest, for thus saith He : Cast all your cares upon 
the Lord. Does He say this to the wind, or to the wild 
beasts? I, too, tremble oftentimes, but it does not last 
long. It is your philosophy, not your theology that 
troubles you." ****** 

Melanchthon stood in need of such encouragement. 
A season portentous of danger to the friends of the Gos- 
pel, opened with the arrival of the Emperor in Augsburg. 
The entrance of his majesty into the ancient, wealthy, 
imperial city of Augsburg occurred on June 15th. The 
Emperor, at once, summoned the Evangelical Princes into 
his presence, and demanded of them to forbid the preach- 
ing of their pastors. He also invited them to join in the 
procession on Corpus Christi day, a ceremony in which 
the idolatry of popery was very distinctly exhibited. 
The Princes, following the dictates of conscience, declined 
to yield to the Emperor in this matter. Kind words and 
sharp speeches were alike employed to make them pliant, 
nevertheless, they remained steadfast in the maintenance 
of the truth, and among them, first of all, the Elector. 

The Emperor required the friends of the Gospel to sub- 
mit their articles in writing. They understood very well 
what were his reasons for making this demand, and they 
insisted upon having their articles read publicly before 
the Diet. This the Romanists sought, by all means, 
to prevent. After great efforts the Evangelical Party at 
last induced the Emperor to consent that it should be 
read. The Diet convened in a small hall in the bishop's 
palace, in the afternoon of June 25th, 1530. Within the 
hall there was scarcely standing room for two hundred 



250 



persons, but the windows were thrown open, and in the 
spacious court there was gathered together a dense crowd 
of anxious and interested hearers. Copies of the Evan- 
gelical Articles were at hand, both in the Latin and in 
the German languages. The Emperor wished the Latin 
copy to be read, but the Elector objected, adding: "We 
are now on German soil, and therefore we beg that his 
imperial majesty will permit the German language to be 
used." Then the Saxon Chancellor, Dr. Christian Beier, 
read the twenty-eight articles of the Augsburg Confession 
with a voice so clear and distinct that every word uttered 
during the two hours occupied with the reading, was' 
understood even through the court-yard. This confession 
of the Evangelical Party, setting forth their faith in Christ 
as the sole ground of righteousness, produced a powerful 
impression upon the feelings of all honest men, even 
among the Catholic party. However, the Emperor re- 
mained unmoved, and the Papists hardened themselves 
still more against the truth. They poured out their rage 
against the confession and against its author in such un- 
measured terms, that Melanchthon gave himself up to 
the most distressing anxieties, and seemed to forget what 
a glorious act had been achieved by the public reading 
of the confession. 

Luther recognized the grand importance of the confes- 
sion at once. It was with jo}^ and thanksgiving that he 
was informed that it had been publicly and solemnly 
read and proclaimed in the presence of the Emperor and 
of the Diet. In a letter to a friend he says : " Our ene- 
mies had made astonishing efforts to prevent the Emperor 
from accepting our confession, but now, by the Emperor's 



251 




252 

orders, it has been read before the whole empire in the 
presence of the Princes and the Estates. I am filled with 
gladness for being alive to this hour in which Christ has 
been publicly preached by such men, before such a con- 
gregation and by this most admirable confession. The 
word is fulfilled: 'I will speak of Thy testimonies also 
before kings/ and the other part shall also be fulfilled: 
'And I will not be ashamed' (Proverbs 119 : 46). He who 
cannot lie has said: ' Whosoever will confess me before 
men, him will I also confess before my Father who is in 
heaven.' I can indeed see here and I can seize it with 
my hands, that God is in truth the hearer of prayer." He 
could not understand how or why Melanchthon should 
talk about giving up. He wrote letters upon letters to 
his friends at Augsburg, comforting, exhorting and 
strengthening them in the best manner possible. He 
gave the Emperor credit for a good heart, and held him 
to be worthy of all honor, hoping that his decision would 
be a righteous one. These sentiments he expressed in a 
letter to the Elector of Mayence. This letter was after- 
wards read in an assembly of Princes, and they were 
greatly surprised in learning how high a regard Luther 
felt for the Emperor, and what an honest and hearty 
German he was himself. 

Several days after June 25th, Veit Dietrich wrote from 
Coburg to Melanchthon: "I cannot sufficiently admire 
the extraordinary perseverance, the cheerfulness, the faith 
and the hopefulness of this man in so trying a time. He 
cultivates all these graces without ceasing by his diligent 
study of the Divine word. No day passes in which he 
does not spend at least three hours in prayer, and these 



253 



are hours that are most appropriate to study. Ouce it 
was my good fortune to hear him pray. Good God! 
what a faith there was in his words! "With such rever- 
ence did he plead with God, and with such faith and 
with such hope that I thought he was speaking to his 
father or to a friend. I know, he said, that Thou art 
our God and Father, and so I am certain that Thou wilt 
bring to shame them that persecute Thy children. If 
Thou dost not do it, the danger will threaten Thee and 
us especially. The whole work is Thine, and we have 
undertaken it because we knew that Thou would st main- 
tain it as Thine own. * * * * This is about what I 
heard him say in his prayer as I stood somewhat re- 
moved from him. So confidently, so earnestly, so rever- 
ently did he speak with God, pressing and pleading the 
promises in the Psalms, as though he were sure of obtain- 
ing all that he was asking for, that I felt the glow myself, 
and my own heart began to burn within me." 

Luther dictated to Veit Dietrich an Exposition of the 
First Twenty-five Psalms, but at the same time his thoughts 
reverted often to his friends in Augsburg. Once he re- 
marked: "Our Philip would be glad to have the definition 
of faith in Hebrews 11 : 1, to run in this way : ' Faith is not 
doubting about anything that we can see," but it has to be 
defined in such manner as to show, that of ourselves, we 
know not how to begin or how to end." He continued to 
study the Catechism every day as he states to Jonas: 
"Here I have begun anew to study the ten command- 
ments; I am learning them word for word like a little 
boy, and I find out how true it is that the wisdom they 
contain can neither be measured nor numbered." 



254 



The Elector John Frederick had, through the agency 
of Lazarus Spengler, a signet-ring prepared for Luther at 
Niirnberg. Luther in expressing his thanks to Spengler 
said that the seal should be a symbol of his theology. 
" Let the first thing be a cross, black, upon a heart of 
natural color, so that I may bear in mind that we are 
saved by faith in the Crucified. Now, although the cross 
is black, tends to mortification and excites pain, yet since 
it allows the heart to retain its natural color, that shows 
that it does not destroy our nature, that is it does not put 
it to death, but keeps it alive, for the just shall live by 
faith, and that is faith in the Crucified. Then the heart 
should rest right upon a rose so as to indicate that faith 
brings joy, comfort and peace. However, as faith gives 
peace and joy not like the world does, therefore in short 
it should be a white rose, a cheerful rose, for white is 
the color of the spirits and the color of all the angels. 
This rose must rest upon a field of cerulean blue, so as to 
show that this joy in spirit and in faith is the beginning 
of the heavenly joy that is yet to come, which indeed, 
though already conceived and embraced, is still not yet 
revealed. This field should be encircled by a golden 
ring, to show that the bliss of heaven is eternal without 
ending, and that it is more precious than all other joys 
and advantages even as gold is the most costly and pre- 
cious of all metals." 

Three productions of Luther's pen passed through the 
press in July, viz., his Revocation of the Doctrine of Purga- 
tory; Forty Theses concerning the Church and Ecclesiastical 
Power, and The Keys which Christ has given to His Church. 
These three little books were written with a reference to 



255 



what was going on at Augsburg, but in writing the other 
small volume, That tlie Children should be sent to School, his 
mind dwelt intently upon the circumstances of his own 
people at home. He found much delight as he thought 
of the many flourishing schools that had been estab- 
lished in the Evangelical Churches, but on the other 
hand he sadly bewailed the great indifference and the 
disgraceful niggardliness of the people who thought of 
nothing but their own bellies. 

At Augsburg, after all, the final decision was long de- 
layed. The Emperor commanded the Catholic theolo- 
gians, Eck, Cochlaus and Faber to draw up a confutation 
of the Evangelical Confession. Their success, however, 
was so poor that he sent them back to their work a second 
time. His repeated demands upon the Evangelical Party 
were always followed by the same answer. True, Me- 
lanchthon was disposed to yield a point here and there, 
yet in every case he took counsel with Luther, who invar- 
iably maintained the same opinion, viz., "we must hold 
on faithfully to the word of God." On August 5th, he 
addressed the following important letter to Chancellor 
Briick : 

" My dear Friend and Brother : I have written to my 
most gracious lord and to our friends so often, that I be- 
gin to fear that I have been making too much of them, 
especially of my most gracious master, as if I suspected 
that his Electoral Grace enjoyed a larger measure of the 
consolations and help of God than has been granted to 
me. But I have been doing this at the instigation of our 
friends, some of whom have been very down-hearted, as 
if God had forgotten us; and yet He cannot forget us, 



256 



He would have first to forget himself. ***** 
I have lately been a witness of two wonders. The first 
one happened as I was looking out of the window. I 
saw the stars in the firmament and the glorious vault of 
God ; and yet I coul d not see any pillars upon which the 




Chancellor Brueck. 



Master builder had made this vault to rest; still, the 
heavens did not fall down, and the vault yet stands, firm 
as ever. Now there are some people who are hunting 
for the pillars, and are very anxious to be able to touch 



257 

them, and to feel them ; and as they are not able to do 
that, they grow nervous and begin to tremble, and are 
sure that the heavens are coming down, and all because 
they can neither handle the pillars nor see them. If 
they could only touch them once then the heavens would 
be firm. 

The other wonder is this : I saw the great, dense clouds 
floating over us, in such masses that they might be com- 
pared to a mighty sea; and yet I could not see that they 
had any bottom to rest upon, nor any shores to confine 
them. However, they did not fall down on us, but they 
saluted us with a serious look and then floated away. 
When they had passed over our heads, what proved to 
be a bottom for them and also a roof for us, the rainbow, 
shone out. Now, whether as a bottom or as a roof, it was 
so weak, so vapory and insignificant a thing, that it van- 
ished at last into the clouds itself; so that we might re- 
gard it rather as a shadow seen through painted glass, 
than as such a solid support as it was, of the falling of 
which we might have as much apprehension as we could 
have of the coming down of the mighty weight of waters. 
And yet, in fact, it was this fleeting shadow that did up- 
hold the weight of waters and protected us. Now, there 
are some people who have more concern and more dread 
about the water, and about the size and weight of the 
clouds, than of this delicate, vapory shadow. They want 
to feel the strength and stability of this shadow; and as 
they cannot do that, they are afraid that the clouds will 
pour down an everlasting deluge upon us. 

" Now, although I have been led to address Your Ex- 
cellency in this style of familiar jesting, yet I speak in 

17 



258 

4 

all sincerity; for it is a special joy to me to have been 
informed that Your Excellency is, above all others, of 
good courage and of stout heart, in these times of severe 
trial. I had certainly been very hopeful that political 
peace, at least, would be maintained. But God's thoughts 
are higher than our thoughts ; and it is well for us that 
they are, for St. Paul says that? He hears and does more 
for us than we can ask or think, for we know not what 
we should pray for as we ought. Rom. 8: 26. Now, should 
He hear us just as we pray, that the Emperor may grant 
us peace; then, possibly, that might be less and not more 
than we can think, and in that case the glory might be 
given to the Emperor and not to God. But now, His pur- 
pose is to grant us peace Himself, so that He alone may 
have the glory. He will, through His Spirit, bless the work 
He has graciously given us to do, and determine the best 
mode, and time, and place for giving us His assistance. 
These blood-thirsty creatures have not yet got half 
through with their incendiary schemes; they are not yet 
disposed to cease their operations, neither have they 
reached the point they have been anxious to arrive at. 
The rainbow is weak and the clouds are mighty; but in 
the end it will prove to be as I have stated above. I 
hope that Your Excellency will pardon my prating, and 
seek to comfort Magister Philip and the others. My 
prayer is, that Christ may comfort and sustain our most 
gracious master. To Christ be praise and thanksgiving 
forever and ever. Amen. To the grace of the same 
Lord do I sincerely commend Your Excellency." 

When this letter reached Augsburg, the Emperor had 
already announced his decision concerning the confes- 



259 

sion of the Evangelical Party. He had had the revised 
or rather the devised confutation publicly read, had 
given it his entire approbation, and declared that the 
Estates which had departed from the holy Roman church 
should be required to return, for he would not tolerate 
any schism in Germany. He refused to give the Evan- 
gelical Party a copy of the confutation. Luther received 
the report of this with indifference ; he looked upon this 
refusal as a proof that the other party were afraid of the 
light; and now his only desire was, that his friends 
should go home. Yet, they tarried for a considerable 
time in Augsburg. A kind of intermediate party, the 
head of which was the Elector of Mayence, made further 
proposals of peace, which Melanchthon was somewhat 
too much inclined to accept. He would certainly have 
fallen into the snares that had been set for him, if the 
powerful support of his friend had not held him upright. 
Urbanus Rhegius, a pastor at Augsburg, who was 
called to Celle, in the vicinity of Hamburg, visited Co- 
burg in the beginning of September; and the impression 
which Luther made upon him was very decided. He 
afterwards said, that if you admit the force of Luther's 
spirit as it lives in the books he has written, still when 
y^ou come to see and hear him personally, you must un- 
hesitatingly acknowledge that he is yet far greater than 
his reputation; he will remain the theologian of the 
whole world, the theologian whose equal the coming cen- 
turies will not be able to produce. A week later, the 
Doctor was startled by a sudden visit of the Elector, 
John Frederick, who found the "Knight of Coburg" 
healthy, hearty and in good humor, and so far disguised 
by his long beard that he hardly recognized him. 



260 



On September 22d, the Emperor dismissed the Elector, 
threatening at the same time, the total wiping out of the 
Lutheran sect, in which operation the Pope and other 
"Christian" potentates would aid him. On October 4th, 
the Elector entered Coburg and took the bearded German 
prophet along with him to Altenburg, where Spalatin 
was pastor at the time. Whilst the friends were sitting 
at the table, on Sunday, eating, Melanchthon was busy 
in writing the Apology or Defence of the Augsburg Con- 
fession. Luther, however, took the pen out of his hand, 
reminding him that we could serve God also by abstain- 
ing from labor and resting. On September 7th, Luther 
returned to Wittenberg; and the final action of the Diet 
was publicly announced, first in 1531. Luther wrote a 
Comment upon the Supposed Imperial Edict, in which he 
took the sycophants of the Emperor, and especially the 
ring-leader, Clement, of Rome, sharply to task. At the 
Diet, certain bishops had intimated that they knew very 
well there was much that was wrong in the papacy, but 
that they would not accept a reformation that proceeded 
from such an obscure corner as Wittenberg. Upon this, 
Luther expressed himself thus: "I, Doctor Martin, have 
been called and compelled to be a doctor, out of the pure 
principle of obedience. I have sworn and vowed upon 
the Holy Scriptures, my most precious treasure, that I 
would preach and teach the word of God in truth and 
in sincerity. Now, whilst I was engaged in doing this, 
the papacy came in my way and undertook to stop me; 
and the consequence was that the papacy fared as you 
may see with your own eyes ; and it will have to keep 
on learning harder lessons yet, and it shall not get rid 



261 



of me, for in the name of God and at His command, I 
am going to fall upon the lions and the adders ; and the 
work shall be begun whilst I live, and it shall be com- 
pleted after I am dead and gone." 

The Emperor and the Dukes of Bavaria had already 




'/'j^'i 



John the Steadfast. 



come to an understanding to visit chastisement upon the 
Evangelical Princes, when the Turks made an incursion 
into the dominions of the house of Hapsburg. The Pope 
and the crafty King of France declined to join in oppos- 
ing the hereditary enemy of Christendom; and so the 



262 



Emperor was forced, by dire necessity, to show a more 
friendly disposition to the Evangelical Party. A Religious 
Peace was concluded at Niirnburg, July 23d, 1532 ; and 
as the result of this, the Evangelical Party was left un- 
disturbed, not only for one year until the meeting of the 
Council, but even until the year 1547. True to the hon- 
esty of the German, they rendered the Emperor their 
prompt support in his wars against the Turks and against 
the French. 

The Elector John the Steadfast, died August 16th, 1532; 
and Luther, deeply affected by the event, preached the 
sermon on the occasion of his funeral. In this discourse 
he expressed the wish that John Frederick, the son and 
successor of the deceased prince, might have the piety of 
his father and the wisdom of his uncle Frederick ; a fer- 
vent wish that fell upon a fruitful soil. Among the 
three Electors who reigned during Luther's time, the last 
was not the least. 

22. THE PASTOR AND PROFESSOR. 

The Plague broke out in Wittenberg in the summer of 
1527, and the labors of the University were at once trans- 
ferred to Jena, from which they were not restored to Wit- 
tenberg until New Year, 1528. The Elector ordered Lu- 
ther also to repair to Jena, because the University could 
not dispense with his services. Luther, however, clung 
to Bugenhagen, the pastor of Wittenberg, and rendered 
him faithful support. He wrote to a friend : " I and Bu- 
genhagen stay here alone, and yet we are not alone, for 
Christ is with us, who, as we believe and hope, is sure to 



263 



triumph, and will Himself protect us against the devil." 
He had no fear about ministering to persons dying with 
the plague; the wife of the mayor of Wittenberg expired 
in his arms. He held it to be his duty to minister to the 
spiritual and bodily relief of the sick, even in the face of 
the dangerous contagion. The plague came into his own 
house; but it was not followed by any fatal result. 
About this time he had many trying spiritual conflicts, 
so severe, that at times he could hardly find relief. Yet, 
he obtained comfort and support in the confession and 
absolution which he enjoyed in the faithful ministry of 
Bugenhagen, with whom, in his turn, he co-operated 
most vigorously in the pastoral work. As Bugenhagen 
had extraordinary talents for organizing the affairs of 
the church upon the principles of the Gospel, his aid was 
solicited in divers quarters in such undertakings, in 
which cases Luther would take his place. He once re- 
marked: "I am Bugenhagen, Moses, Jethro, and what 
not?" Bugenhagen was in the habit of preaching three 
times a week, which Luther also did, attending at the 
same time to the care of souls with the greatest fidelity. 
John Frederick often invited him to go to Torgau and 
to preach there, or he came himself to Wittenberg to hear 
Luther. Meanwhile, the congregation of which Luther 
was the chief pastor, resided outside of the unattractive 
city on the Elbe. It was easy to find it, for all Germany 
was his congregation, and its members were the many 
cities and territories that longed to be supplied through 
Luther's ministry with the Gospel and with an order of 
service based upon the word of God. In fact, Luther was 
a chief bishop, to whom was committed the administra- 



264 



tion of an immense territory. His activity was wonder- 
ful, not less wonderful his sagacity; and the extraordi- 
nary modesty with which he was wont to speak about 
himself, whilst he could not sufficiently applaud the 
merits of his friends, was not the least of the features that 
marked his character. 

During his sojourn at Coburg he wrote to the Swabian 
theologian John Brenz as follows: "My opinion of your 
writings, my dearest Brenz, is such that in comparison 
with them my own writings seem to me to be quite con- 
temptible. I do not natter you; I am not praising Brenz, 
but I am giving glory to the Spirit who is more loving, 
more peaceable, more tranquil in you than in me. Your 
language, adorned with rhetorical art, flows further, it 
passes on and on purer, clearer, brighter and so capti- 
vates and charms the readers the more. But mine, not 
formed nor controlled by the rules of rhetoric, presents 
nothing but a forest or a chaos of words, and besides it is 
like a restless and boisterous swordsman who is forever 
fighting with monsters. Therefore to compare small 
things with great the portion of the fourfold spirit re- 
vealed to Elijah, 1 Kings 19: 11, 12, that has fallen upon 
me, is the wind and the earthquake and the fire by which 
mountains are overthrown and rocks are split to pieces, 
but the portion that has fallen upon you and upon others 
like you is the still, small voice that is so refreshing and 
reviving. This is the reason why your writings and your 
style are so delightful to me, to say nothing about how 
precious they are in the estimation of other people. But, 
after all, I comfort myself with the thought, indeed with 
the assurance, that in His great administration of affairs 



265 



our Heavenly Father has use for this and that servant 
who will deal sharply with the obdurate, be froward with 
the froward and go into the gnarled logs like a rough 
wedge. When God sends forth a thunder storm there is 
not only the rain that waters the earth, but you hear the 
fearful thunder and see the terrific lightning that purifies 
the air, and all in order that the earth may be the better 
and bring forth a richer abundance of fruit." 

A visitation throughout the dominions of Saxony pre- 
ceded the introduction of the Evangelical order of wor- 
ship. Luther had to complain continually "that the pas- 
tors in many places were held in less consideration than 
even the swineherds." "Amongst us," he added, "the 
Gospel has advanced so far as to be preached in its purity 
and heard willingly, for everywhere there are many pious 
souls who delight in the joyful sound of the word of God. 
But even alongside of this there is great ingratitude and 
a horrible contempt of the Divine word; yes, even a 
secret persecution of it that is personally endured by 
many." 

In the year 1533, new statutes were adopted for the 
University of Wittenberg. The interpretations of the 
scholastics were abrogated, and the exposition of the Holy 
Scriptures was made the chief branch of study. The 
first statute provided that the pure doctrine of the Gospel 
in harmony with the Augsburg Confession should be 
taught, maintained and propagated. Bugenhagen, Cru- 
ciger and Weller became doctors of theology, Luther 
himself being their chairman. The lectures of the uni- 
versity were largely attended, and among the students 
were sons of princes and noblemen, all of whom regarded 
Luther with most profound reverence. 



266 

As we are aware, the translation of the whole Bible 
into the German language was first finished in the year 
1534. At this point Luther might well have taken his 
rest, but the thought of so doing never entered into his 
mind as long as he lived. For the benefit of "laymen" 
he published an Exposition of Psalm 101, which production, 
for its substantial contents and vigorous style, is reckoned 
among his best. As a service to a somewhat inquisitive 
tonsorial artist, "Master Peter, the barber," he wrote 
Simple Instructions how to Pray, in which he explains his 
own method in his devotions. He relates how he would 
stir up the spirit of prayer by taking his Psalter and 
going into his closet, or going to church at the hour of 
public worship, and meditating the ten commandments, 
the creed, the words of the Lord, or of St. Paul, etc., until 
his heart would grow warm and bring him to himself; 
how he still continued, like a nursling, to suck nourish- 
ment from the Lord's Prayer, and yet ate and drank like 
a full grown man and had not enough after all. 

His expositions of divers Psalms passed through the 
press from time to time. He began his lectures on the 
book of Genesis in the winter of 1534, 1535, and con- 
tinued the course for several years afterwards. The work, 
however, which engaged his chief attention at this time 
was his commentary of the Epistle to the Galatians, In 
the preface to this work he says: "This one article, faith 
in Christ, bears the sovereign sway over my heart. All 
my meditations in theology, both day and night, flow 
from Him and through Him and to Him. Yet I find 
that so far I have acquired only a little of the first fruits, 
only fragments of a wisdom that is in itself so high, so 



267 

broad, so profound. I am ashamed to publish these my 
expositions of such an apostle, such a chosen instrument 
of God, and yet the abominable fury that is forever raging 
against the one firm rock of our justification, compels me 
to get over my shame and to assume the boldness of a 
hero." 

It was not Luther's lot to spend his strength in the 
quiet labors of a learned professor; he had to act as com- 
mander and leader in the strife as long as he lived. His 
old enemy, Duke George, of Saxony, gave him much 
trouble. He had to exterminate the disorder of private 
masses, radically of course, employing no other means 
than the testimony of the Divine word. Erasmus at- 
tacked him again, and former friends like Crotus and 
Scheurl made war upon him. At Frankfort-on-the-Main 
an offence had been given by attempting to administer 
the Lord's Supper in an Evangelical and a Zwinglian 
way at one and the same time. This called forth an 
Address to the Citizens of Frankfort, which did not fail to 
accomplish its purpose. When emissaries of the Ana- 
baptists began their operations in Saxony, there appeared 
a little book under the title, Concerning the Sneaks and the 
Sly Harangners. He "had been told that these sneaks 
would get in amongst the laborers in the harvest field 
and declaim to them whilst they were at work that they 
would go to the coal-burners, and to lonely workmen in 
the retirement of the forests, sowing their evil seed and 
ejecting their venom everywhere, and so leading the peo- 
ple off from the true Christian fellowship, in all which 
we may see the genuine work of the devil, and how he 
hates the light and prowls about in the darkness." The 



268 



Anabaptist faction had erected a "Kingdom of Christ " 
in Soest and in Miinster, in Westphalia, yet they soon 
met with a terrible overthrow. Luther did not rejoice 
in their fall, but from the bottom of his heart he be- 
wailed the sad experience of those persons whom they 
had deceived and misled. The Papists laid the charge 
of all this misery upon the head of Luther. 

In the month of May, 1536, there were several guests 
sojourning at the University, who were supposed to be far 
removed from Wittenberg. Several cities of North Ger- 
many with Strasburg at their head, had presented their 
own special confession at the Diet of Augsburg, because 
they could not accept the Lutheran doctrine of the Lord's 
Supper. They did not, however, feel comfortable in the 
position they occupied between Luther and Zwingli. 
Bucer, who was then at Augsburg, had an interview with 
Melanchthon in the hope of bringing about a union. 
Melanchthon then conferred with Luther, who did not 
discourage him. Accordingly, a meeting of theologians 
of both parties was agreed upon. On account of the deli- 
cate state of Luther's health, the delegates from North 
Germany came to Wittenberg. There were eleven of 
them, men of learning and distinction, and Luther re- 
ceived them cordially, indeed more cordially than was 
altogether pleasing to many of his own friends. He de- 
clared that he was prepared to become one with them as 
soon as they would be willing to accept the scripture 
doctrine of the Lord's Supper. He cherished the hope 
that they would do so, yet he was grieved to learn that 
just at that time an epistolary correspondence between 
Zwingli . and Bucer made its appearance, in which the 



269 



former not only repeated his old errors, but spoke also of 
a salvation of the heathen without Christ. During the 
progress of the conference, Bucer went so far as to declare 
in the name of his colleagues that they did not approve 
of what Luther taught, to wit, that the institution of the 
Lord and the presence of the body, according to the words 
of institution, was not affected by any man's faith or lack 
of faith, but depended upon the institution itself as the 
word and the ordinance of God. They earnestly en- 
treated to be received into the fellowship of faith and 
brotherly love by the confederates of the Augsburg Con- 
fession and Apology, because they accepted these docu- 
ments as true in all points. After Luther had conferred 
with his friends he announced their agreement with the 
North Germans cheerfully in these terms : " Worthy Sirs 
and Brethren : We have heard the response and the con- 
fession of all of you, that you believe and teach that in 
the Lord's Supper the true body and the true blood are 
given and received, and not bread and wine alone; also 
that this giving and receiving is an actual transaction, 
and not a mere fanciful ceremony. Though you hesitate 
about the ungodly only, yet you admit that as St. Paul 
teaches, the unworthy receive the body of the Lord, by 
which no violence is done to the institution and word of 
Christ, therefore we will not dispute about that point. 
So then, since this is your doctrine, we are all of one 
mind; we recognize you and receive you as our brethren 
beloved in the Lord as far as this Article is concerned." 
Hereupon, all folded their hands devoutly and united 
in offering thanks to God, after which Melanchthon was 
authorized to record the Articles of the Wittenberg Concord 



270 



in writing. A harmonious adjustment of other matters 
that had been in dispute was then the more easily ac- 
complished. 

On Ascension Day, Luther preached from a full heart. 
A hearer remarked that his speaking sounded like a 
, voice thundering from heaven in the name of Christ. On 
the following Sunday the assembled guests approached 
the Lord's table, on which occasion Bucer preached. Af- 
terwards, Bucer spent the evening with Luther, when the 
latter referring to the sermon, said that he was much 
pleased with Bucer's preaching, "and yet," he added, "I 
am a better preacher than you are;" to which Bucer 
promptly assented. But Luther continued; he did not 
mean it in that way; he would not indulge in boasting; 
he knew his infirmity, and that he could not preach with 
such keen penetration and such learning as Bucer could, 
but when he entered the pulpit he always observed that 
his hearers were chiefly poor people, and he preached to 
them somewhat like a mother who feeds her infant deli- 
cately on milk, and does not drench it with rich syrup; 
whereas, Bucer was quite too high in his discourse, mov- 
ing about in the regions too lofty for his hearers. 

The North Germans appended their signatures to the 
" Concord," and then took their departure. It is a pity 
that they were not all true to their engagements; for 
afterwards, when the conflict between Lutheranism and 
Calvanism prevailed, there were Reformed churches or- 
ganized in the regions they had represented. The Land- 
grave of Hesse, who, until this time, had been a patron 
of Zwingli's, readily acquiesced in the "Concord." 

Luther then, himself, took the first steps towards effect- 




?-. 



■ ; - ; : -. 










..•>^ j< 



\\\.v 



Luther's Sermon. 



272 

ing a union with the Swiss. Though enduring much 
bodily suffering, he, nevertheless, wrote repeatedly to 
Meyer, the Mayor of Basel. Meyer informed him that 
the city council of Basel had directed the pastors to main- 
tain the principles of the Concord in their sermons, and 
that they were honestly disposed to do so of their own 
accord. However, he was constrained to add, that the 
other theologians of Switzerland, although they rejoiced 
on account of Luther's pacific spirit, were not inclined to 
unite in adopting the " Concord." Luther's correspond- 
ence with Bullinger, the successor of Zwingli, had no 
further effect than to secure an armistice between the 
parties. 

The Bohemian Brethren made another advance towards 
Luther. Under the influence of his writings they had 
cast out one unevangelical element after the other. 
When their pastor, Augusta, came to Wittenberg in 1540, 
Luther received him with a friendly welcome. A perfect 
union with them could not, indeed, be expected, because 
the brethren were not willing to give up their singular 
doctrines. Nevertheless, Luther spoke with much warmth, 
of their patience and their works of Christian love. In 
the vear 1542, he sent his salutations to them, and as "a 
dying man," exhorted the brethren to stand fast, with 
him, in the fellowship of the Spirit and of the truth un- 
til death. 

Luther always sought, in the sincerity of his heart, to 
establish and maintain fellowship with all who had re- 
ceived the Gospel. His honest and fervent soul was 
grieved that all could not be of one mind with him, be- 
cause the speculations of reason prevented it. Yet never, 



273 



never once, did he think of making a compromise with 
the papacy ; for the papacy had thrown even the Gospel 
away. During the years that followed the great day of 
Augsburg, peaceable as his disposition was towards Prot- 
estants w T ho differed from him, he was quite as com- 
pletely armed and as resolute to fight against all the 
power of Rome. 

In October, 1534, Paul III became Pope, in place of 
Clement, and summoned a council for the purpose of 
healing the dissensions of heresy, hoping to be sustained 
by the strong arm of the Emperor. In the summer of 
1535, the Emperor attacked the piratical city of Tunis; 
captured it, and effected the deliverance of 20,000 Christ- 
ians from slavery. Upon his return he became involved 
again, with the King of France, who, bearing the title of 
"Most Christian Majesty," had formed an alliance with 
the Turks against Charles. He endeavored to draw over 
the German Protestants to his side, and spoke much 
about reforming the church. Melanchthon was invited 
to go to France, but the Elector refused his consent. 
The rabid King, Henry VIII, fell out with the Pope about 
this time; and through Robert Barnes, who was then 
studying at Wittenberg, he sought to obtain the friend- 
ship of Luther, for he was anxious to be on good terms 
with the Protestants, and even solicited a visit from Me- 
lanchthon. This however, the Elector forbade. Here- 
upon, English theologians came to Wittenberg seeking 
counsel. Henry promised to accept the Augsburg Con- 
fession if it should be modified, but this could not be 
granted. After the death of Luther, Bucer went to Eng- 
land, and was very active there in the work of reform. 

18 



274 



In the year 1535, Pope Paul sent Bishop Vergerius as 
his legate to Germany, to invite the Germans to a coun- 
cil in the Italian city of Mantua. Vergerius was well 
known in Germany, and thought himself to be both 
prudent and wise. He arrived at Wittenberg on No- 
vember 6th, and invited the professor, Luther, and the 
pastor of the city, Bugenhagen, to take breakfast with 
him on the following morning. This invitation put Lu- 
ther in a good humor. He put on his best clothing and 
hung a gold chain around his neck, and had himself 
carefully shaved and his hair frizzed ; and then he told 
the astonished barber that he had to present himself be- 
fore the Pope's legate, and that he wanted to look like a 
young man, so that the legate might be led to think that 
he could undertake and do a good deal of work yet. 
The barber wished that God might be with him, and 
that he might succeed in converting these Roman gen- 
tlemen. To this, Luther replied: "I shall not be able 
to do that; but it may happen that I shall give them a 
good lesson, and so dismiss them." As he was approach- 
ing the castle with Bugenhagen, he said, laughing: 
" Here we go, the German Pope and Cardinal Pomeranus, 
servants of God." As soon as they had announced their 
arrival at the castle, they were conducted into the pres- 
ence of the legate. Vergerius received them with grace- 
ful compliments- He spoke of Luther's talents, and of 
the respect which he commanded at Rome ; he regretted 
the harshness of Leo's proceedings, and offered to the 
consideration of Luther the prize of the red hat of a car- 
dinal. Luther, purposely took no notice of this Roman 
politeness, made no answer, but was free and easy in his 



275 



bearing. They then began to talk about the council, 
when Luther promptly expressed his willingness to at- 
tend it wherever it might be held ; he even invited the 
Pope to come to Wittenberg. When Vergerius inquired 
whether priests were ever ordained at Wittenberg? Lu- 
ther pointed to Bugenhagen, saying, "there sits an or- 
dained bishop." The two doctors continued their inter- 
view until Vergerius left the castle to travel further. 
After he had mounted his horse, he said to Luther, 
"take good care to be ready for the council," to which 
Luther replied, "yes, sir, with my head and my neck." 
This lofty legate afterwards wrote to a friend in Rome, 
that it was an agony to him to have to listen to what 
this Dutch beast said. 

In opposition to the wishes of the Evangelical Estates 
of the Empire, the Emperor approved of the calling of the 
council, to convene at Mantua instead of a German city. 
It was to be opened in May, 1537, and the "pestilential 
Lutheran heresy" was to be exterminated at last. The 
question arose, ought the Evangelical Party to plunge 
themselves into the deadly ditch? The men at Witten- 
berg were of opinion that they ought to attend the council 
even though they were in danger of being handled as 
offenders. But the Elector was more familiar with the 
spirit of the men who ruled at Pome, and said that as 
they would not at all give any hearing to the truth, there 
could be no good for the cause of the Gospel derived from 
the council. He then directed his theologians to request 
Luther to draw up an exhibition of all the doctrines he 
had taught in a document which should be laid before 
the council, and Luther began the work at once. The 



276 

chief article, concerning justification, he was resolved to 
lift up and extol in the face of the Pope and of the coun- 
cil and of the whole world. " Of this article nothing can 
be yielded or surrendered, even though the heavens and 
the earth should go to ruin, for upon this article rests 
everything that we teach and pray for, in opposition to 
the Pope, the devil and the world." He then goes on to 
show the idolatry of the mass and of the worship of the 
saints, the fraud of monkery, and finally the violent work 
of the Pope in putting himself above everything. He 
calls the Pope a wild fanatic: "Popery is nothing but 
crazy fanaticism, for the Pope boasts that all rights are 
enshrined in his heart, and that whatever he, with his 
church, decides and commands that must be accepted as 
the Spirit and Truth, even though it be beyond, and con- 
trary to, the word of God." Luther regarded these Schmal- 
cald Articles as his last will and testament to the church, 
for he thought that his days were numbered and his end 
was nigh. They were named for the Thuringian town of 
Schmalcald, because they were proposed to the meeting 
of Protestant Estates in that town in February, 1537, as 
the declaration they would make before the council at 
Mantua. They did not obtain the approbation of all 
parties as was natural, least of all were they approved of 
by the Papal Legates, the Bishop of Acqui and the Im- 
perial Vice-Chancellor Held. 

When Luther arrived at Schmalcald he was a very 
sick man. His disease, stone in the bladder, attacked 
him with such severity that he wished himself dead, and 
even took leave of his sorrowing friends. During one of 
his distressing paroxysms he said: "Father receive my 



277 



poor soul, take it into Thy hands, and I will thank and 
praise Thee. Go my soul, depart in the Name of God! 
What miserable creatures we are! I have scarcely any 
strength in me, and with the little that I have left, how 
am I tormented by the devil! my Father, make me 
strong in faith and patient to endure, so that I may over- 
come at last." He remembered his wife and children 
most tenderl}\ He wasted very few thoughts upon the 
council, but he was much concerned about the church, and 
lamented that men were so ungrateful and so heedless of 
the word of God. He said, with tears : " I am afraid that 
the good cause of the Gospel will suffer defeat; O my 
God, I am Thy creature, Thou art my Creator; I am the 
clay, Thou art the potter. Willing am I to meet my 
dying hour, if Thou wilt only uphold Thy word ! " Dr. 
Sturz, a physician of Erfurt, who had been promptly 
brought to his relief, attended him to Gotha. During the 
journey the pain was excruciating, and yet the shaking 
he had endured did him good, for on the following night 
he found relief. Upon leaving Schmalcald he made the 
sign of the cross to his friends, saying: "The Lord fill 
you with His favor and with hatred of the Pope ! " Dur- 
ing the night Luther wrote to Melanchthon, and as his 
messenger was passing the house of the Papal Legate, he 
cried out in Latin: "Luther lives! Luther lives!" In 
Gotha he had another attack of his pains, when with the 
help of Bugenhagen he prepared his will, made confession 
and received absolution. The next day he was surprised 
to find himself better, and finally he reached Witten- 
berg, where under the tender care of his wife he improved 
so rapidly that during Passion Week and on Easter he 
preached every day. 



278 



The Estates convened at Schmalcald, rejected all the 
proposals of the Pope, for they would have nothing to do 
with a council, the head of which was their arch-enemy. 
After Melanchthon had completed the work of Luther 
by the addition of another article about the supremacy 
of the anti-Christian Pope, written in Luther's spirit, the 
entire document was subscribed by the assembled friends 
of the Gospel, who thereby proclaimed their absolute and 
complete abjuration of popery. 

Pope Paul changed the place of the meeting of the 
council from Mantua to Vicenza, and the Emperor having 
his hands full with the troublesome Turkish war, wished 
that the meeting might be indefinitely postponed. To 
this the Pope willingly gave his consent. Luther had 
anticipated these knavish tricks, and was not slow in 
bearing testimony against the lying Pope and the cardi- 
nals who "with their fox-tails kept themselves busy in 
sweeping about the papal seat." At this time he pub- 
lished a book Concerning the Councils and the Churches, 
which was followed by a rush of smaller, fiery produc- 
tions, serving, as was intended, to produce no ordinary 
amount of agitation. 

23. CHURCH HYMNS. 

As a good old German proverb has it, " All good things 
are threefold" (Aller guten Dinge sind Drei). For a 
thoughtful mind this proverb contains a profound and 
sublime significance. In fact it refers even to the Most 
Holy Trinity. It is therefore no play of wit, and should 
be uttered always with sincerity and reverence. We may 






279 



apply it to Luther with the utmost propriety. Three 
good things there are which make his name and memory 
so precious to his people for all time: his Bible, his Cate- 
chism and his Hymns. 

When the new Evangelical Order of Worship was 
being arranged and carefully prepared at Wittenberg, 
Luther gave his earnest attention to the matter of the 
language of the service. Accordingly, he believed that 
the Roman, the Latin language, should be dropped at 
the same time with the Romish mass. The Apostle had 
called upon the whole congregation to edify itself with 
psalms and songs of praise, and the singing should there- 
fore no longer be confined to the choirs alone. So the 
question arose: what shall the congregation sing? The 
people were acquainted only with the few hymns which 
were sung on the occasion of the great festivals, and these 
were chiefly imitations of old Latin hymns. The hymn 
for Christmas was, "Ein Kindelein so lobelich ist uns 
geboren heute ; " for Easter, " Christ ist erstanden von der 
Marter alle;" for Whitsunday, "Nun bitten wir den Hei- 
ligen Geist." The sacramental hymn, " Gott sei gelobet 
und gebenedeiet" also was sung occasionally, but at other 
times it was only the music of the choir in an unintelligi- 
ble, foreign tongue that sounded in the congregation. 

In the new Order of Worship Luther recommended 
that the four hymns specified above should be occasion- 
ally sung, and he began to inquire after poets whose 
talents might be useful in the service of the people. He 
did not think that he himself was qualified for such a 
work, although he had often written Latin verses whilst 
yet a boy. He tried to urge George Spalatin and John 



280 



Dobzig to write versifications of the psalms, but he did 
not succeed. Justus Jonas who had the reputation of an 
excellent Latin poet, cheered him with a hymn upon 
Psalm 124: "Wo Gott der Herr nicht bei uns halt." 
Paul Speratus contributed three hymns, one of which, 
"Es ist das Heil uns kommen her," proved to be a mighty 
preacher. After all, it turned out in this case, as it had 
previously done with the Bible and the catechism, that 
the best work was the work of Luther's own heart and 
hand. 

In the summer of 1523, he commemorated the martyr- 
dom of the young men Voes and Esch in the Netherlands 
in a hymn, the fresh, joyous tone of which commanded 
the ear and the heart of the people at once. Then the 
living fountain was opened, and then the stream of sacred 
song began to flow, by which thousands of thirsty souls 
have been refreshed. His first hymn written for the 
church was: "Nun freut euch, lieben Christen gmein." 
The first Evangelical hymn book appeared in the begin- 
ning of 1524, under the title, "Several Christian Hymns, 
songs of praise and psalms according to the pure word of 
God, taken from the Holy Scriptures, composed by several 
learned men, to be sung in the churches, as is done 
already in part, at Wittenberg." This book was a quarto, 
containing only twelve leaves and eight hymns, four of 
them written by Lather, three by Paul Speratus, and one, 
" In Jesus Namen heben wir an," by an unknown author. 
Five of these eight hymns are accompanied with appro- 
priate notes of music. There are as yet only three copies 
of this little book known to exist. During the same year 
there appeared at Erfurt, "Enchiridion or Manual, very use- 



281 



ful as a companion for every Christian, for diligent prac- 
tice in spiritual songs and psalms, all in true and pure 
German. With these and other songs like them it is 
right and proper to train up the children and the youth." 
Only one copy of this Enchiridion is known to exist. It 
is in the library at Strasburg. It has a preface and 
twenty-five hymns, eighteen of them being Luther's, three 
from Paul Speratus, the hymn, " In Jesus Namen," above 
noted, one from E. Cruciger, "Herr Christ, der einig 
Gottes Sohn," one from Justus Jonas, "Wo Gott der Herr 
nicht bei uns halt," and one from E. Hegenwalt, " Erbarm 
dich mein, O Herre Gott." 

It is most probable that Justus Jonas was the editor of 
this Enchiridion, and that he wrote the preface. A third 
hymn book appeared in the prolific year 1524; it was 
supplied with music for five voices, arranged by John 
Walther, and bore the title, "Book of Spiritual Songs." It 
contains a neatly printed "preface by Martin Luther," 
with thirty-two German hymns and five in Latin for the 
use of the school children. Twenty-four of these hymns 
are Luther's. It contains also Spengler's " Durch Adams 
Fall ist ganz verderbt," and Stiefel's " Dein armer Hauf, 
Herr, thut klagen." We give the preface of Luther un- 
abridged as worthy of hearty consideration: 

" That the singing of spiritual songs is good and pleas- 
ing in the sight of God must, in my opinion, be clear to 
every Christian, as everybody may see not only in the 
example of the prophets and the kings in the Old Testa- 
ment, who praised God in their songs, rendered with 
poetical and musical excellence, but also in the usages 
and especially in the hymns and psalms that have pre- 



282 



vailed all through Christendom from the very beginning. 
St. Paul also gives instructions concerning such things 
in 1 Cor. 14, and he exhorts the Colossians to sing in 
their hearts to the Lord with psalms and spiritual songs, 
so that the word of God and Christian doctrine may thus 
be cherished and cultivated in every appropriate way. 

" For this reason I, with several other persons, in the 
hope of thereby encouraging those who may be able to 
do it better, have tried to make a good beginning by col- 
lecting sundry spiritual songs in furtherance of the Gos- 
pel, which by the grace of God has now been restored to 
us, and in order that, as Moses does in his song, Exodus 
15, we too may make our boast that Christ is our glory 
and our song, and that we will neither know, nor sing, nor 
say anything but the praise of Jesus Christ our Saviour 
as St. Paul says, 1 Cor. 2: 2. 

" Besides, the hymns of this book are arranged for four 
voices, and that only for the reason that it is most ear- 
nestly desired that the young people who ought to be and 
must be trained up in the knowledge of music and of 
other useful arts, may have some protection against the 
foolish carnal songs that prevail, and be supplied with 
something wholesome to learn instead of them, and enter 
into it and study it with heartiness as it becomes young 
people to do. Further, because I am not of the opinion 
that the fine arts are to be overthrown and extermi- 
nated by the Gospel as certain fanatical spiritualists have 
presumed to say. My fond hope is to see all the arts and 
especially the art of music devoted to the service of Him 
who has given them and created them. I beg therefore 
that every sincere Christian may regard this work with 



283 



favor, and if God has given him more ability or the like 
ability, let him use his talent so as to help on in the good 
work. Alas ! the whole world is far too careless and in- 
different about the proper training of the young, and the 
reasons of such indifference are very easily understood. 
God grant us His grace. Amen." 

By the year 1545, there had appeared eleven hymn 
books all printed under the superintendence of Luther. 
A number of hymns had been printed and circulated 
separately, as for example, " Aus tiefer Noth," " Ein feste 
Burg," "Herr Gott, Dich loben wir," "Vater unser im 
Himmelreich," " Erhalt uns Herr, bei Deinem Wort," etc. 

Most of Luther's hymns were based upon a passage 
of the Scriptures, and so he preached in verse. Yet, he 
was not a mere versifier, not a forger of rhymes, but a 
poet by the grace of God, who since his own day in true 
conception and happy expression of the sentiment and 
heart of his people has never been equaled by any other, 
not even by Paul Gerhardt himself. His own personal 
feelings never appeared in his hymns. He was the 
mouth-piece of the church, and he faithfully repeated 
that only which had previously stirred her mighty spirit. 
For this reason his hymns are living, glorious Church 
Hymns, always ahead; the torch-bearers of the mighty 
hosts who in the Evangelical Zion have kept on singing 
her hundred thousand songs. He was able to remodel 
and to expand the four or five ancient hymns that lodged 
in the memories of the people in such a manner that 
they seemed to have been cast in the same mould. The 
few hymns that had previously been known consisted of 
only a few lines, but now the supply offered in the hymn 



284 



had come to be abundant and plentiful. Luther trans- 
lated three hymns from the Latin, and he adapted the 
sacramental hymn of the martyr John Hus to the use of 
the church. 

The crown of Luther's hymns is "Em feste Burg ist 
unser Gott," an imitation of David's Psalm 46. Luther 
was personally absent from the Diet of Speier, but in 
spirit he was there, and lifted up his voice in protesting 
against the violence attempted against conscience. All 
his prayers, all his faith, all his hopes concerning the 
transactions at Speier towered aloft in " Ein feste Burg," 
resting upon the everlasting rock of confidence and 
strength. That hymn was written and printed in 1529, 
during the sessions of the Diet of Speier. Luther often 
sang it whilst he was at the castle of Coburg, but he did 
not write it there. 

For his own children in the first place and then after- 
wards for the pure delight of many other children, he 
wrote "the children's song for Christmas about the Infant 
Jesus," Luke 2 : " Vom Himmel hoch da komm ich her." About 
the same time he wrote that majestic "Song of the Holy 
Christian Church," that rings and sounds like a revela- 
tion, "Sie ist mir lieb die werthe Magd und kann ihr 
nicht vergessen." In the year 1541, when the borders of 
the empire were in great danger of an invasion by the 
Turks, Luther exhorted the pastors to bear the peril in 
mind in their prayers, and to prepare their petitions in 
the form of hymns. It was for this purpose that he wrote 
his own hymn, " Erhalt uns, Herr, bei deinem Wort, und 
steur des Papsts und Tiirken Mord." He called this a 
"children's hymn," which the children ought to learn 



285 



and repeat at home, "for it does not concern us old 
people so very much, because we shall soon have to pass 
away, but this hymn is intended to serve those who come 
after us, that they may remain steadfast in the faith of 
Christ, and be sure of eternal life in defiance of the devil 
of Mohammed." Six of his hymns were accompanied 
with appropriate music, the composition of Luther him- 
self. The music of "Ein feste Burg," harmonizes per- 
fectly and is undissolubly wedded with the words and 
the sublime defiance of the hymn itself. 

Even as Emser had presumed to undertake to improve 
Luther's Bible, so there were some who tried to polish up 
Luther's hymns. Others, however, rejected them alto- 
gether as being " unspiritual." The Schwenkfielders, a 
sect of extravagant spiritualists, wrote all kinds of hymns 
which contained incongruous stuff in jingling rhymes, 
and Luther appended the following warning to later edi- 
tions of his hymn book : " Many false teachers are spin- 
ning their rhymes; be on your guard, judge them wisely 
betimes. Wherever God sets up his church and His 
word, there the devil will fight both with fire and with 
sword." 

We close our account of Luther's hymns with a short 
extract from what he wrote as a 

Preface for all good Hymn-Books. 

Madam Music speaks: 

Of all the joys on earth 
None is of greater worth 
Than what my art affords ; 
Sweet sounds and pleasant words. 



286 



111 humor flies the ring 
Of friends who join to sing. 
Wrath, envy soon depart, 
And every thing that wounds the heart, 
Anger, sorrow and, in brief, 
Whatever can occasion grief. 
Besides, we all may certain be 
That such delight from sin is free ; 
That in God's sight, 'tis better far 
Than all this world's vain pleasures are. 
To Satan it gives grave offence, 
And hinders murderous violence. 
The acts of David make this plain, 
Who helped King Saul, once and again; 
With cheerful harp, as you may find, 
Restored the King's sad wandering mind. 
It helps the heart, with sweet accord, 
To learn the teachings of the Lord; 
As in the prophet's breast, the fire 
Of faith was waked by the sounding lyre. 
Mine is the best time of the year, 
When birds with music charm the ear. 
Heaven and earth they fill with song; 
Both morn and eve their joys prolong. 
And most of all the nightingale, 
Whose thrilling notes fill all the vale. 
We give it thanks for its music clear; 
But first of all we thank our God, 
Who formed the nightingale, so rare 
Of voice, to publish all abroad, 
Like a very Master of Art, the praise 
Of Him who taught it its wonderous lays. 
To Him it sings, both day and night; 
In ceaseless song it finds delight, 
Him, I too, with my song would praise, 
And give Him thanks for endless days." 



VI 



JL{ Jhmitmj Wxtnz H JUpH b Jntfy 



24. THE HOUSE-FATHER. 



N finding that his end was approach- 
ing, the Elector John bequeathed 
to Luther, his wife and his legal 
heirs, the Augustine Monastery at 
Wittenberg, with its courtyard, its 
garden and its vested rights, Feb- 
ruary 2d, 1532. This was the home of Luther 
and of his household for more than twenty 
years. He always regarded his wife as the 
light of his house, and according to the word of God, 
held her high in honor. Upon the same principle he 
believed himself to be the head of the house, and dis- 
charged his duties as such, with sincerity and firmness. 
Luther's wife was a faithful helpmate .to him. Her 
spirit was not weakly strung; on the contrary, she had 
rather the strong, sturdy spirit of a man, and she had 

(287) 




288 



need of it; for, with their very limited resources, it was 
no slight task to keep affairs in order, under the ever in- 
creasing demands made upon her family. Besides, it 
was very necessary that she should he patient and of 
good heart, on account of the severe bodily sufferings 
and the spiritual trials that afflicted her husband. This 
she did in a most admirable manner, bearing her heavy 
yoke with cheerfulness. 

Luther's friends soon made the agreeable discovery 
that his wife had been made for him. She was the friend 
of her husband's friends, and these, in their letters to 
Luther, rarely forgot to include their compliments to his 
wife. 

In the earlier years of their married life, she was 
always happy to sit down at the writing desk of her hus- 
band, sometimes interrupting him with questions, sug- 
gested rather by curiosity than by intelligence. Some 
playful hints of Luther seem to indicate, that at first, she 
had a desire to be the head of the house herself; and in 
consequence of this she had to put up with it when her 
husband would address her as "My lord Katie." 

It was with a transport of joy that he saluted his first 
child, born June 7th, 1526. He then wrote to a friend 
that, "through the extraordinary grace of God his be- 
loved wife had given him a Hans Luther." The child 
was named John, for his grandfather. It is pleasant to 
read his letter to Spalatin, in which he tells how the lit- 
tle child is thriving, and presents a variety of very natu- 
ral incidents. . 

His daughter Elizabeth, was born December 12th, 1527, 
when the plague was raging at Wittenberg; and in the 



289 

following summer her body was laid in the grave. Lu- 
ther then wrote to his friend Hausmann: "Her death 
has made me very sick at heart; indeed, my heart is 
almost as tender as a woman's, so deeply do I grieve for 
her. I would never have believed that the heart of a 
father could be so tenderly affected for his children. * * 
Elizabeth has bidden us farewell, and gone to be with 
Christ, through death to life. 

Magdalena, Luther's " dearly beloved Lena," was born 
May 4th, 1529. Upon requesting certain friends to be 
her sponsors at her baptism, he says : " For the purpose 
of making a Christian out of this poor little heathen, I 
wish you to be her spiritual father and mother, so that 
she may be brought out of the old birth in Adam into 
the new birth in Christ by holy baptism." 

Martin was born November 7th, 1531; Paul, January 
28th, 1533, and Margaret, December 17th, 1534. Then he 
found special delight in Psalm 128, which treats " of the 
duties and the blessings of godly parents," and w T as much 
interested in writing an exposition of the psalm. After 
the birth of his youngest child he said, that parental 
love always descends meekly rather than ascends; for it 
settles upon the child that is latest born, because it has 
the greatest need of the parents' loving care. 

His children were his teachers. They live, he said, in 
such simplicity and sincerity; their faith does not stum- 
ble. Of faith, they have a better understanding than we 
have, old fools as we are. They believe that God is rich 
in grace, and that after this life they will enter into life 
eternal; and they do not dispute nor doubt about it. 
They are not troubled with anxious cares, for God gives 

19 



290 



them such grace that they would rather be eating cher- 
ries than counting money, and they think more of a 
good apple than of a round dollar. They never trouble 
themselves about the price of grain; for in their hearts 




Luther's Residence. 



they are well satisfied that they will get enough to eat. 
That God who has given them their life, and formed 
their shapely, graceful limbs, will certainly support and 
provide for them. Yes, even before a child is born, its 



291 



place is prepared and provision is made for it, "as the 
Scripture says and as the familiar saying runs, " the more 
children, the more blessings" (Je mehr Kinder, desto 
mehr Gluck). On a certain occasion, he saw his little 
son Martin fixing up a doll and carrying it around as 
his lady-love, when he remarked: "So upright and so 
perfectly innocent would we have been in paradise. 
Such pleasantries are the most interesting features of 
children ; the dear little buffoons, the most consummate 
actors, they do everything without affectation, naturally 
and with the whole heart." His boys once had a squab- 
ble, but soon made it up, when he said : " 0, my God ! 
how pleasing must the life and the amusements of such 
children be to Thee; for in truth all their offences amount 
to nothing but the forgiveness of offences, in the end." 
The behavior of the children, in this case, reminded him 
of the command of the Lord, that we should be converted, 
and must be like the little children if we would enter 
into the kingdom of heaven. "We might indeed sup- 
pose," he added, "that God would deal most tenderly with 
them, and take them to heaven as they are. But God's 
thoughts are higher than ours. As the fanatics are wont 
to say, He must first smooth down our roughness, and 
hew many a knotty branch and chip off from us, so as 
to make us like the little children." Once, when his 
wife brought one of his children to him in his study, he 
said, with deep emotion : " I wish that I had died when 
I was of the age of this child ; for that I would be willing 
to give up all the reputation I now have and all I may 
yet acquire in the world." 

He was not like many other fathers, who are not will- 



292 



ing to share with the mothers in bearing the burdens 
and the toils that belong to the care of the children; for 
he never denied the call of any parental duty, and was 
always ready to bear his part. He often considered how 
much our Father in heaven has to endure from the 
children of men. At Christmas time, in 1535, his young- 
est child, Margaret, lay in the cradle, and the mother 
was so busy in her preparations for the great festival, 
that she could not give much attention to the infant. 
The child then becoming restless, she asked the Doctor 
to bring his book into the nursery and rock the cradle, 
which he willingly did, as an act of obedience to his 
"lord Katie," and of love for his child. As he looked 
awhile at his book and awhile at the child, his thoughts 
carried him off to Bethlehem, and to the shepherds watch- 
ing their flocks, and to the infant Christ; and he began, 
for the first time, to sing his famous hymn, " Vom Him- 
mel hoch da komm ich her." 

It was altogether because he was such an affectionate 
father that he was unwilling to humor his children when 
they proved to be self-willed and disobedient. He kept 
a strict account with his boys. Once, when his eldest 
son, Hans, had displeased him, he refused to see him 
and to grant him the solicited pardon for a period of 
three days. He would rather have had a dead son than 
a disobedient one. He applied to himself the words of 
St. Paul, I Tim. 3 : 4, a bishop should rule well his own 
house, having his children in subjection with all gravity. 

Luther had also to exercise his care, now and then, in 
moulding the character of his wife ; for her own lofty and 
domineering spirit was, at times, a source of trouble to 



293 



herself. This, however, Luther did not take much to 
heart, because he knew that she meant it kindly. She 
was not slow of speech; and, on one occasion, when she 
could not stop, he asked her, with a smile, if she had 
offered prayer before she began so long a sermon? His 
opinion was, that women are eloquent by nature, and 
that rhetoric is an instinct in them, whilst men have to 
take such great pains to acquire it. He once introduced 
a visitor, an Englishman, to his wife, and added, by way 
of joke, that she was professor of German eloquence; for 
"she has such mastery of it as to leave me far behind." 
Yet he added, seriously, it is more becoming for women 
to speak softly and deliberately. In his family domestic 
peace flowed on without disturbance; and his friends 
often heard him heartily extolling the praises of his wife. 
He was always ready to admit that in domestic affairs 
the women are much more handy than the men. He 
once said, "if a wife is faithful and true, as a pious and 
virtuous woman ought to be, that is reason enough for 
always cherishing her highly in love and honor. Infir- 
mities and failures are encountered everywhere in the 
married life." 

For Luther and his wife the source of domestic happi- 
ness was their daily converse with the Holy Scriptures. 
He often encouraged her diligently to study the word of 
God, and especially the Psalms. Once, in reply to such 
an exhortation, she said: that she heard and read, and 
knew enough about it already ; she only wished that she 
could practice it. Then he cautioned her against becoming 
weary of the Scriptures, which weariness starts with the 
conceit that we already understand everything; whereas 



294 



in fact our experience teaches us the very reverse; yes, 
"that we know as much as a goose." 

"Madame Katie" had abundant opportunity for the ex- 
ercise of her skill in the management of domestic affairs. 
The amount of Luther's income increased considerably 
as the years passed on. It consisted not only of money, 
but also of natural products, the storing and preservation 
of which required judicious management. The monas- 
tery indeed had been bestowed upon him, but the struc- 
ture had never been finished, and the repairs that were 
required occasioned much expense. Once he had to con- 
struct a vault; after it was finished he entered it in com- 
pany with his wife for the purpose of examining it, when 
it suddenly caved in and nearly buried them. In the 
fall of 1539, he had an arch of sandstone prepared for his 
front door. A seat of stone stood at the right side and one 
at the left side of the door. Above the one seat was Lu- 
ther's bust with the inscription : " In his fifty-ninth year," 
and above the other his coat of arms with the rose. His 
study extended out above the moat. Madame Katie availed 
herself of the privileges of the monastery and brewed beer; 
but it was only of that kind which the Doctor relished. 
Flowers and vegetables were cultivated in the garden 
where the pear tree still stood, under which Staupitz had 
prevailed upon Luther to become a Doctor of the Holy 
Scriptures. Luther purchased also three lots of ground 
and a cottage adjoining the monastery, and in 1540, he 
bought from his brother-in-law, von Bora, whose circum- 
stances had been much reduced, the farm "Zulsdorf" not 
far from the city of Leipsic. "Madame Katie" gave 
much attention to the management of this farm, and 



295 

gloried not a little in the success of her husbandry. Lu- 
ther had to scribble a good deal for "lady of the Zulsdorf 
domain," often appending agricultural demands to theo- 
logical questions. For the benefit of his wife he wrote in 
the almanac that was in daily use the following familiar 
rhymes : 

"The best manure for all farming ground 
In the diligent feet of the farmer is found. 
The horses are kept in best condition 
When eyed by the owner without intermission, 
And the eyes of the women, careful souls ! 
Are far better cooks than girls, fire or coals." 

Luther never desired to become rich. Once, when one 
of his children came to him to say "good night," he 
added, "Go, be a good child; I will not leave you any 
money, but I will leave you a rich God." "Madame 
Katie" indeed was of opinion that if her husband had 
been minded like certain other people he might easily 
have been a rich man, but Luther believed that economy 
was the best capital, yet he was not willing to be inter- 
fered with in his benefactions to those who were in need. 
His beneficence was very great, and it was often heavily 
taxed, sometimes indeed immoderately. 

Among the many domestic cares that concerned his 
faithful wife there was only one that he considered worthy 
of his attention, to wit, the training of their children in 
the nurture and admonition of the Lord. His House- 
postils, edited by Veit Dietrich, is a collection of sermons 
which he delivered to the members of his own household. 
He drilled them diligently in the Catechism, for he always 
believed that such instruction and study would do more 
good to young people than the ordinary preaching in the 



296 



church. The church festivals, and Christmas especially, 
were celebrated in his house with solemnity and rejoicing. 

The church in his house was not confined to the pa- 
rents and the children. "Auntie Lena" was an aunt 
of Madam Luther, and had been with her in the cloister. 
Luther held her in high esteem, was always grateful to 
her for the love she had for his children, and thanked 
her with his whole heart, when in 1537, she bade them 
good-bye, and returned to her own home. Three grown 
up nieces also belonged to the family, and four nephews 
during the time of the prosecution of their studies at 
the university. Besides, there was always a number of 
boarders who held it to be a very high honor to sit at the 
table of the most distinguished and eloquent man of his 
times. Former students who had not as yet obtained an 
appointment were very anxious to be employed as assist- 
ants of the Doctor, even to render him personal service, 
or to relieve his wife in some of her many cares. Such a 
famulus or household servant was Wolf Sieberger who 
spent many years in the Augustine monastery, and who 
gave his master many a fine opportunity to practice the 
virtue of patience. Luther was always friendly in his 
bearing towards his dependents, and easy and open in 
his intercourse with them. Free and friendly association 
with others proved to be his best protection against de- 
pression of spirit. He once said : " Rather than stay all 
alone, I prefer to go to my swineherd John and see him 
taking care of his swine." 

A bishop must be sober, as we find it repeated in the 
table of duties in the Small Catechism, and Luther faith- 
fully obeyed this Evangelical precept. His moderation 



297 



was very decided, and Melanchthon often expressed sur- 
prise that a man of such portly presence should eat and 
drink so little. He had no desire for the luxuries of the 
table that prevail among the rich; relishing a plain, 
genuine, domestic meal more than the most costly viands. 
He ate moderately of what pleased his taste, and was ab- 
stemious when the festive cup was allowed. He zealously 
opposed the drinking habits of his fellow countrymen. 
He attached much importance to the regular amount of 
sleep, and never retired to rest at a later hour than nine 
o'clock. In his attire he was very plain, and so was fully 
entitled to reprove the Germans for their luxurious habits. 
Especially did he censure the matrons and the young 
ladies for sprucing themselves up in so grand a style 
when going to church as if the church was a theatre. 
He understood the use of the needle, having learned it 
during his monkish life. Sometimes he would practice 
the art, and once when suddenly detected by his wife he 
excused himself by saying that the Electors Frederick 
and John had done the same thing. 

Luther was not a book-worm, neither did he shut him- 
self up in his study like a recluse, consuming the mid- 
night oil. With all his extraordinary labors he still 
found time to refresh himself in the contemplations of 
nature, and when in his garden or in the open country, 
he quaffed the fresh air in copious draughts. In all the 
operations of nature he saw the hand of God, and so he 
discovered wonders and impressive lessons in everything. 
Like a very husbandman he rejoiced when the rain came 
to nourish the growing crops: "Now God is giving us 
hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth; now it is raining 



298 



wheat, and oats and barley, and wine, and onions, and 
grass, and milk." Upon seeing the herds on the pasture, 
he remarked : " There go our preachers, the producers of 
milk and butter, and cheese and wool, who are preaching 
to us every day and exhorting us to depend upon God as 
our father." He regarded the sun as a wonderful crea- 
tion of glory, upon which we might have gazed in Para- 
dise with open eyes, with perfect delight, but alas, now 
everything in us has become infirm. He was especially 
interested in birds, and among quadrupeds he had a 
fondness for dogs. He kept a dog and commended it by 
saying: "The dog is the most faithful animal we have, 
and it would be highly valued if it were not so common; 
the most useful gifts of God are the most common." He 
was fond of standing and looking at the bee hives; he 
admired their industrious ways and said: "The bee is 
such a delicate little creature, it cannot endure any un- 
savory smell, it is so cleanl} r in its work, so complete in 
its police, so loyal and devoted to its king." He was apt 
to regard what he saw upon the earth as a reflection of 
things in heaven. " If God has made this fleeting world 
so beautiful, how much more beautiful will He make that 
world that shall endure forever. 0, that we could con- 
fide in Him with the whole heart. As God has given us 
so much to delight in, in this state of our pilgrimage, 
what may we expect in the life that is to come?" 

Next to theology Luther loved music, because music 
had such power to lift up the heart and spirit and to 
quicken them so wonderfully in the worship of God. 
For this reason it was that he maintained that music 
ought to be regarded as an important branch of the edu- 



299 



cation of the school, and that neither cost nor pains 
should be spared in teaching the children to sing well. 
His children and the students that sojourned in his house 
formed a choir, and he often spent an hour with them, 
uniting his own full voice with theirs in their musical 
exercises. John Walther furnished the hymns and the 
musical accompaniment. The Bavarian choir-master, 
Senfel, sent him several of his motets, for Luther had 
written to him during his stay at Coburg, and spoken of 
his own undertakings in the composition of music. In 
this letter he expresses himself thus : " But why should I 
now speak in praise of music, and attempt to depict so 
grand a subject, or rather to dishonor it within the nar- 
row limits allotted to me? My heart overflows, and is 
in transport at the thought of music, for it has so often 
refreshed me and delivered me out of great straits." We 
have given the song that he sang for Madame Music in 
the foregoing chapter. 

The art of poetry, the twin sister of music, was a cher- 
ished denizen in Luther's house. We have, in addition 
to his church hymns, a variety of smaller poems referring 
both to spiritual and temporal things, all of which bear 
the unmistakable impress of Luther himself. Wherever 
they are met they are greeted with gladness. * 

Not only did Luther attach extraordinary importance 
to music and poetry as a means of mental and • spiritual 
refreshment, but he attributed like value to physical and 
bodily exercise as the means for preserving health. He 
watched the running and the jumping of his boys with 
pleasure, and was very willing himself to join in a game 
of ball, or of nine-pins. Occasionally he played chess, 



300 



and generally understood how to check-mate his adver- 
sary. Now and then he would attend academical festivi- 
ties, observed by the learned fraternities, when more or 
less noise and clashing would result from the meeting of 
ancient usages and new fashions. 

Luther's Table-Talk is famous throughout the world. 
It fills large volumes. The collection was started by Wel- 
ler and Lauterbach, fellow-boarders, who committed to 
writing what they had heard and retained in memory. 
The many-sidedness and wealth of the table-talk is aston- 
ishing; and there is hardly any department either of the 
spiritual or the external life which it does not handle. 
His personal experience in his youth, the guidings of Di- 
vine Providence, the characters he had had to deal with, 
the blessings he had enjoyed in the love of his wife, in 
the affectionate attachment of Philip and of other friends, 
his opinion of Pope and Emperor, of prince and chancel- 
lor, of citizen and peasant, of men and women and chil- 
dren, his views of the works of nature, all this and much 
more occurs in the course of his Table-Talk. But after 
all, when thus surrounded by a faithful company of con- 
fiding friends, his chief delight was to discourse upon 
such subjects as were directly connected with the king- 
dom of God. Often, indeed, did the cheerful, animated 
conversation, lead to a profound discussion of theologi- 
cal subjects; and we cannot wonder that the professors 
of Wittenberg and many other learned friends, seldom 
failed to present themselves, on certain evenings of the 
week, at the Augustinian monastery. He was very ready 
to give suggestions upon the subject of preaching to the 
students and the young clergymen who might happen to 



301 

be in the company about bis table. His opinion was, 
that the preacher should announce his subject straight- 
way, avoiding long circumlocutions; that he should keep 
it in view firmly and distinctly; that he should not lug 
in everything that might happen to come into his mind; 
that he should bring his sermon to an end in good time; 
in fact, that the very best time to end was when the peo- 
ple seemed to be the most attentive. He was most de- 
cided in his admonitions against the pompous display of 
pretensions to learning, and the bold parade of lofty tal- 
ents in the presence of the congregation. The grace of 
God often made those very sermons the most successful 
in doing good, in the preparation of which the preacher 
had been most discouraged, and of which he might even 
be ashamed. " For, so it often happened even to himself. 
Though an old preacher and having much experience, 
nevertheless, he trembled whenever he had to preach; 
for preaching is not a work to be done by the power of 
man." 

Luther was always indignant when people would ven- 
ture to pour out upon him their utterances of praise. He 
raised up a barrier against all unnecessary testimonials 
of honor, and always gave his heart to prayer whenever 
he was approached by the fascinations of a vain ambi- 
tion. His estimate of his own writings was not very ex- 
alted. He advised his friends and his pupils to pass 
them by and to study the writings of Melanchthon; and 
in his opinion the "Loci of Philip" deserved to stand 
next to the Holy Scriptures, for "no better book than that 
has been written since the times of the Apostles." 

Luther lived a life of constant communion with God. 



302 






He was accustomed to pray aloud in his closet ; and in 
the evening he usually prayed, standing erect at the 
open window. Melanchthon has related how he him- 
self often dropped in whilst Luther, in tears, was offering 
his prayers on behalf of the church. He believed that 
there was mighty efficacy in the prayer of faith. " Let 
happen what will, we can accomplish everything by 
prayer; for prayer itself is a kind of omnipotence. By 
prayer we are able to bring into order whatever has been 
appointed ; we can make crooked things straight, we can 
endure what cannot be healed, we can overcome in all 
adversities, and we can secure the possession of every- 
thing that is good." When he would speak about the 
Saviour, his language was often so tender and loving, 
that it might appear as if he himself had seen the Lord 
both in Bethlehem and Nazareth. Yet he was decidedly 
opposed to all fanatical notions and fancies; and his 
prayer was, that no extraordinary signs should be given 
to him, lest he might be exalted above measure, and 
tempted by the devil to depart from the testimony of the 
Divine word. The word of God alone was enough to 
satisfy all his desires. 

Luther was not a stranger to the pain of domestic afflic- 
tion. His favorite daughter, Magdalena, died September 
20th, 1542. " Lena " was truly a pious child, and through- 
out her life never once displeased her father. When he 
began to despair of her life he said, that he loved her so 
much that he would most gladly keep her; but indeed, 
nothing better could happen to her than that the will of 
God should be done. To the child herself he said, " you 
would be willing to stay with your father here, and 



303 



willing also to go to your Father there/' to which she re- 
plied, "yes, dear father, as God wills." As her last mo- 




LUTHEB AT THE COFFIN OF HIS DAUGHTER MAGDALENA. 

ment was approaching, he fell upon his knees at her bed- 
side and wept, and prayed that she might depart in 



304 



peace, whereupon she breathed her life away and fell 
asleep in his arms. He then addressed those who were 
present, saying: "I have sent a saint to heaven. If I 
could die such a death, I would willingly so die this very 
hour." He continued to feel the pain of his bereavement 
for a long time, and could not think of his favorite child 
without sighing and sobbing. 

The other children survived their father. Hans, the 
first born, studied law at Wittenberg and Konigsberg; 
and afterwards became counsellor of chancery at Weimar. 
Martin studied theology; yet on account of his infirm 
health, he never occupied any official position. He died 
at the age of thirty-three years. It was through Paul, 
the youngest son, that the family name was transmitted. 
He was an able man; and as a skillful physician, stood 
high at the courts of princes. His grandson, John Mar- 
tin, was a distinguished counsellor of the Elector's. Mar- 
garet was the wife of the Prussian nobleman, von Kun- 
heim. Luther's children all lead an upright life. None 
of them sullied the reputation of their illustrious father. 

25. IN CONFLICT AND IN PEACE. 

In the month of April, 1539, at Frankfort-on-the-Main, 
an agreement was made between the imperial commission, 
on the one side, and the Protestant Estates, on the other, 
for the convening, within two years, of a free church 
council, to be composed of clergy and laity, for the pur- 
pose of opening a way to effect a union of the two par- 
ties. The Protestants succeeded in stipulating that no 
representative of the Pope should be admitted to the 



505 



council. This, however, enraged the Pope, who, conse- 
sequently threatened the Emperor with his displeasure, 
and so the Emperor refused to approve of the agreement. 
Hereupon, the Evangelical Princes agreed to hold a con- 
vention at Spire, which, however, on account of the 
prevalence of the plague, was subsequently held at Ha- 
genau, in Alsace, in June, 1540. The Elector, leaving 
Luther at home, took Melanchthon along with him. 
Melanchthon having taken sick at Weimar, the Elector 
sent a courier to Wittenberg to bring Luther and Cruci- 
ger. Upon Luther's arrival at Weimar, he found his be- 
loved friend apparently in the last extremity. The phy- 
sician had given him up, and all the symptoms indicated 
an early dissolution. Consciousness, speech, sight, hear- 
ing, all were already gone. As Luther approached the 
bed he was deeply shocked. " God help us," said he to 
his companions, "how fearfully has the devil abused this 
instrument!" Then turning to the window he offered up 
a fervent prayer. Referring to this scene afterwards, he 
said : " Then, our Lord God had to listen to me, for I 
tpok all His promises to hear prayer that I could possibly 
gather together out of the Holy Scriptures, and poured 
them into His ears and plead, that if I was to believe that 
His promises were true, He would have to hear me now." 
Then returning to Philip, he took him by the hand and 
bade him be of good cheer, for he was not going to die 
yet; that although God had reason to deliver men over 
to death, yet He had no delight in the death of a sinner, 
but rather that he should be converted and live ; that 
Philip should not give himself up to despondency, and 
so end his days; but rather trust in the Lord, who can 

20 



306 



slay and make alive, who can wound and heal the 
wounded. Upon this, Melanchthon began to breathe more 
freely, but was for some time yet unable to speak. When 
at length he recovered his power of utterance, he looked 
intently upon Luther and begged him not to detain him 
here any longer, but to allow him to depart, for he was 
on a happy journey and nothing better could befall him. 
Luther replied, "by no means, you will have yet to ren- 
der further service to our Lord God." He then had some 
nourishment prepared quickly, which, however, Melanch- 
thon refused to take. Then, with an air of authority, 
Luther said: "Do you hear, Philip? not another word, 
you must eat this, or I shall excommunicate you." Then 
the sick man began to eat a little, and from that hour he 
gradually recovered his wonted strength. Luther wrote 
to Lange, in Erfurt : " We found Melanchthon dead, but 
by a wonderful act of God's power he lives again." At a 
later period, Melanchthon himself related, that he could 
not describe the terrible sufferings he had endured ; that 
he had observed how Luther too was agonized in spirit, 
but tried to conceal it all so as not to increase the dis- 
tress of the patient; that Luther's resolute spirit had done 
him much good, not only by the consolations which he 
gave, but also by the air of authority with which he 
spoke to him; that he would have died if Luther had not 
come to him. 

As soon as Melanchthon was able to travel, the friends 
set off for Eisenach. The Elector having no confidence 
in the promises of peace, sent his representatives to Ha- 
genau. Whilst tarrying at Eisenach, Luther wrote to his 
wife: "Magister Philip has been rescued from the grave 



307 

and restored to life. He has a feeble look, yet is not pale. 
He is cheerful and laughs with the rest of us, and he 
joins us at the table, eating and drinking as he has been 
wont to do. Thanks be to God! and I hope that you 
will unite your thanksgivings with ours." 

There was nothing accomplished at Hagenau, and 
another meeting was appointed to be held at Worms in 
the month of October. On July 26th, Luther wrote to 
his wife: " To-morrow, God willing, we shall move on 
towards Wittenberg. The meeting at Hagenau was of 
no account; toil and labor were lost, and all the expense 
was useless. Yet, if we accomplished nothing else, we 
have, at least, brought Magister Philip back again from 
death and the grave, and now we can take him home 
with us, with gladness, if the Lord will." 

The delegates to the meeting at Worms met, but ad- 
journed soon without having reached any results. Gran- 
vella, the representative of the Emperor, acted very cau- 
tiously. Melanchthon represented the Evangelical and 
Eck the Catholic Party. A proclamation of the Em- 
peror's suddenly dissolved the session, and at the same 
time announced a meeting of the Diet in Regensburg, 
which he himself expected to attend. This Diet was 
opened in the spring of 1541, and the Elector, John Fred- 
erick, ordered Melanchthon and Cruciger to attend it. 
Upon his journey Melanchthon met with an accident by 
which some of the bones of his right hand were broken. 
During Melanchthon's absence Luther continued to be 
sick; yet this did not prevent him from writing to Me- 
lanchthon who needed such counsel as well in Regens- 
burg as he had previously required it in Augsburg. In 



108 



one of these letters he says : " Although I am very sorry 
on account of your injured hand, yet I do not believe 
either in your forebodings or in my own. Our business 
is not directed by chance, but by sure counsels, not ours 
indeed, but God's only. The word runs, prayer is fervent, 
hope is patient, faith overcomes, so that we might seize 
it with our very hands, and if we were not flesh and 
blood we might be able to take our ease, only remember- 
ing the words spoken by Moses, ' stand still and see the 
salvation of the Lord.'" 

Luther did not expect much from the conference at 
Regensburg. Yet, its tendency was pacific. The repre- 
sentatives of the Evangelical side were Melanchthon, 
Bucer and Pistorius; those of the Catholic Party were 
Eck, Pflug and Gropper. The legate of the Pope was 
Cardinal Contarini, a man of moderate opinions. The 
transactions throughout were calm and courteous, and it 
looked as if the Catholic Party were ready to adopt the 
Evangelical doctrine concerning justification, and to ap- 
prove of even the strong expression, "by faith alone." 
Upon this point Melanchthon showed extraordinary firm- 
ness, not having the least disposition to yield. Yet, it 
turned out at last that the Catholics, fearing the dis- 
pleasure of the Pope, were more concerned about main- 
taining the false doctrine than they were about doing 
honor to the truth. When they saw that even the gentle 
Melanchthon could be firm and steadfast, a committee 
was sent off to Luther. By command of the Emperor, 
the Princes John and George, of Anhalt, Lord von Schu- 
lenburg and Alesius, a professor of Frankfort, were dis- 
patched to Wittenberg with instructions " to prevail upon 



309 



Doctor Martin to accord and approve of certain articles 
concerning religion, which could not be obtained from 
Philip and his colleagues at the conference. These four 
commissioners all were friends of Luther, and they laid 
their business before him. His interview with them was 
most cordial and friendly, whilst he declared that he was 
prepared to come to an agreement, if the Emperor would 
allow the word of God to be preached everywhere in its 
purity. This, however, the Emperor could not promise, 
for he was compelled to keep on good terms with the 
Pope. No other agreement was reached than that which 
had been already effected at the Diet of Niirenberg in the 
year 1532. 

After tarrying about a month in Regensburg, Melanch- 
thon went home, and Luther remarked to the Elector: 
" Thank God, the Papists are more afraid of Melanchthon 
than of any other among all the scholars of the day." 
The city of Halle joined the Evangelical cause during the 
sessions of the Diet of Kegensburg. Halle was the resi- 
dence of the Cardinal Archbishop and Elector Albrecht, 
of Mayence, who was compelled at last to yield to the 
force of the Evangelical movement, and left the city in a 
rage. Justus Jonas was then called as pastor of the city 
church. The Bishop of Naumburg died in January, 1541, 
and the Elector, John Frederick, contrary to the wishes 
of the cathedral chapter, appointed the Wittenberg Pro- 
fessor, Nicholas Amsdorf, a bishop. The cathedral chapter 
rejected Amsdorf's appointment and elected Julius Pflug 
a man of learning as the bishop. But as the Estates of 
the Cathedral were in favor of the Evangelical cause they 
confirmed the appointment of Amsdorf, and on January 



310 



20th, 1542, Dr. Martin Luther solemnly ordained Ams- 
dorf a bishop in the old Cathedral of Naumburg. The 
next year was marked by events of extraordinary import- 
ance. Two bishops, acting of their own accord, undertook 
the renovation of the church in their respective territories. 
The noble old Archbishop of Cologne, the Elector, Her- 
mann, secured the advice and cooperation of Melanch- 
thon in the work of reforming the church in his wealthy 
diocese. The Bishop of Minister called Pastor Bonnius, 
of Liibeck, to Osnabriick where the cause of the Gospel 
was permanently established. In the year 1544, George, 
of Anhalt, became the Evangelical Bishop of Merseburg. 
Subsequent to 1537, there were Evangelical bishops in 
Denmark, in the reformation of which kingdom Bugen- 
hagen had been participating for two years. The two 
brothers Olaus and Lawrence Peterson who had studied 
at Wittenberg, had already preached the Gospel in the 
adjoining kingdom of Sweden, which country was in ad- 
vance of Denmark in adopting the principles of the Re- 
formation, and the King, Gustavus Yasa, maintained for 
years an epistolary correspondence with Luther and Me- 
lanchthon. To the great joy of Luther, Joachim II, 
Elector of Brandenburg, turned his attention to the refor- 
mation of the church in his dominions in the year 1539, 
an undertaking which had for a long time been acknowl- 
edged as good and wholesome. About the same time the 
Gospel triumphed also in the dukedom of Saxony, the 
sovereign of which, Duke George, opposed the word of God 
with the same bitter hostility with which he had opposed 
Luther. The hatred which his eldest son John had 
towards Luther was even more malignant, but death 



311 



snatched him suddenly away. Frederick the next son was 
an imbecile, but his father made him the hereditary prince 
and appointed twenty-four counselors to aid him in his 
administration. However, Frederick also died suddenly. 
Henry the brother of George had embraced the Gospel, 
and it was the intention of George to bequeath the duke- 
dom to the Emperor so as to make sure of keeping the re- 
formation off. Yet with these plans in his mind he died 
unexpectedly and with his spirit unmollified. Henry then 
took control of the dukedom to the great joy of the people. 
When the cath of allegiance to him was taken at Leipsic, 
Luther was present and preached the Gospel in the pres- 
ence of large crowds. Yet it is sad to think what bad 
seed had been spread abroad through the hostility of 
Duke George. Many of the nobility and of the priest- 
hood continued to be the enemies of the Gospel. 

In the year 1544 there was another Diet at Spire, 
which was attended by the Elector, John Frederick, 
whom the Emperor Charles V received with extraordi- 
nary favor, admitting at the same time, that the Pro- 
testants were entitled to all kinds of rights. The Em- 
peror himself was in straits; for, the King of France, in 
violation of his oath, had taken up arms again, and the 
Pope was helping him with funds that ought to have 
been spent in warring against the Turks. 

The high officials of the State and the jurists did much 
mischief at that time, and for all subsequent times, by 
the encroachments which they ventured to make upon 
the rights and the official work of the clergy. Luther 
discovered, in the arrogance of the jurists, a counterpart 
of the oppressions of popery, and predicted heavy calami- 



312 



ties for the church that was sinking under the weight of 
a new bondage. In the sermons and the writings of his 
later years, he speaks strongly concerning the jurists, and 
laments the conduct of men like the chancellors of the 
Elector, whom he had once held in high honor, as ardent 
friends of the Evangelical cause. 

The state of morals in Wittenberg, also, was an occasion 
of much anxiety to him. Dissolute habits had begun to 
show themselves among the students ; and the civil au- 
thorities were inclined to be too indulgent. However, 
unbridled as the behavior of the reckless young men 
sometimes was, it could be favorably compared to the con- 
dition of morals in popish regions. Under the rule of 
Duke George, Leipsic was a Sodom and Gomorrah. 

As Luther had expected, the Wittenberg Concord did 
not continue long. The theologians of Zurich were very 
sensitive about the reputation of Zwingli, and took every 
intimation that was in the least unfavorable to him very 
much to heart. It was not possible for Luther to abstain 
from handling the anomalous doctrine of the Swiss Re- 
former. Though he had not offered a challenge to the 
men of Zurich, yet, about 1543, they openly attacked him 
and compelled him, weary and sick as he was, to stand 
upon his defence once more. This he did in a writing 
that appeared in 1544 under the title: "Short Confession 
of D. Mart. Luther, Concerning the Holy Sacrament." In this 
writing he breaks off from Carlstadt, Zwingli, Schwenk- 
feld and others altogether; and the tie between Witten- 
berg and Zurich, the result of so much labor, was sun- 
dered forever. Luther prosecuted the work no further, 
but his opponents held a strict account with all of their 



313 



own party who could be charged with leaning towards 
the Lutheran side. The clergy of Basel, acting as medi- 
ators, especially complained of the unfairness of the 
theologians of Zurich. 

Between 1539 and 1545, Luther was busy with the re- 
vision of his German translation of the Bible. He felt 
himself bound to keep on polishing this wonderful work 
until it should shine out all over, revealing the highest 
degree of perfection. 

Mattliesius, an inmate of Luther's house, describes what 
he calls "the Sanhedrim" that usually convened on an 
evening of the week, before supper time, in the Augus- 
tinian monastery. There was Melanchthon, a master of 
the Greek text, and there was Cruciger, thoroughly versed 
in Hebrew and in Greek, who brought the old Chaldee 
paraphrases along with him. There, too, was Bugen- 
hagen, especially familiar with the Latin version, and 
Justus Jonas and Aurogallus, Professor of Hebrew at 
Wittenberg, as also George Borer, who served as corrector, 
and besides, foreign scholars who came now and then as 
visitors. Every man had prepared himself beforehand 
on the portion allotted to him, and Luther took great 
pains to secure in every case the right German word. 
As an illustration of his carefulness, he would visit the 
houses of the butchers, witness the operations of slaughter- 
ing, and ascertain the names of the different parts of the 
animals. The German text was settled by a regular vote. 
AVhen the evening's work was done, the friends all joined 
in a repast, and Luther instructed them with his table- 
talk. The exercises of the evening were often closed with 
the voice of song. 



314 



A new edition of the Church Postils was published in 
1544, edited by Cruciger; and Lectures upon Genesis ap- 
peared at the same time. Luther was interested also in 
the position of the Jews. Upon this subject four produc- 
tions of his pen were printed in 1543 : 1, Of the Jews and 
their Lives ; 2, Of Schem Hamphoras ; 3, Of the Genealogy of 
Christ; 4, Of the last words of David, II Samuel 23 : 1-7. 

A complete edition of the very many productions of 
Luther's pen was begun in the year 1539, under the 
supervision of Cruciger and Korer. Luther had long 
opposed this undertaking ; but, at last, gave his consent. 
Lie was sincere in saying that he would willingly see 
every one of his books pass into obscurity and be for- 
gotten. He implored the readers of his books, by their 
lives, not to allow such reading to hinder them in the 
study of the Holy Scriptures. The right way to study 
theology, he said, was that that is pointed out in Psalm 
119, with the three rules, Oratio, Meditatio and Tentatio, 
that is, devout prayer to God in the closet for the illu- 
mination of His Holy Spirit ; then meditation with con- 
tinual knocking and pondering, reading and re-reading 
of the Divine word, with diligent study of the meaning 
of the Holy Spirit ; and then, finally, trial, temptation, by 
which we come to learn, through experience, how faith- 
ful and true, how sweet and how mighty the word of God 
is. The Preface of the complete edition ends thus : " In 
one word, let us seek for honor, and be lifted up wherever 
it is right for us so to do. In this book the glory belongs 
to God alone ; for it is written : ' God resisteth the proud, 
but giveth grace to the humble. To Him be glory for- 
ever more, Amen.' " 



315 



In the space of thirty-four years 294 German writings 
and 74 Latin writings, the productions of Luther, were 
published, and his letters are counted by the thousands. 
His last controversial productions appeared in the year 
1545, bearing the titles : Against the Popery of Rome, insti- 
tuted by the Devil ; The Popery of Hadrian, and Italian Lies 
about the Death of Dr. Martin Luther. His very last work 
was dedicated to the welfare of his German countrymen : 
The new Preface for the Instruction of those Visiting the 
Churches. 

Luther did not enjoy good health in the later years of 
his life. A disease of the bladder gave him much trouble, 
and his suffering was sometimes agonizing, though at 
other times it did not interrupt his cheerfulness. The 
Elector was ever ready to send his own physician in 
ordinary, Ratzeberger, to minister to his relief; and the 
wife of the Elector sometimes kindly sent to inquire con- 
cerning his condition. Once he returned answer to her 
inquiries thus : " Thank God, we are well and better off 
than we deserve to be. It is no wonder that I feel at 
times good for nothing. I have reached an age which, 
in itself, is old, and cold, and decrepit, and sick, and 
infirm. The pitcher goes to the fountain until it is 
broken. I have lived long enough. God grant me a 
happy death, after which my poor body shall rest in the 
grave and become food for worms." 

In the summer of 1545 Luther, all at once, left Witten- 
berg, thoroughly indignant at the outrageous behavior 
of the citizens and the students. He went to Leipsic and 
Zeis, and then sent Cruciger back to Wittenberg to an- 
nounce his determination, not to return any more ; also, 



316 



that Madam Katie should sell out and move the family 
to Zulsdorf. Luther himself then went to Naumburg, 
where he ordained George of Anhalt, a bishop. Witten- 
berg was thoroughly perplexed; both the city and the 
University dispatched messengers, with instructions to 
urge him to return. Even the Elector entreated him to 
have patience with Wittenberg, and he himself would 
give more attention to the proper administration of 
affairs. At length, Luther yielded, and returned to Wit- 
tenberg, and as the result, better order prevailed. 

On November 10th, 1545, surrounded by a circle of his 
friends, he celebrated his birthday. Upon their with- 
drawing, he earnestly exhorted them to hold fast to the 
Gospel. On November 20th, he completed his exposition 
of the book of Genesis; and this was his last lecture at 
the University. He closed it with these words : " Here 
then we have the book of Genesis. God grant that some 
one may come after me who shall do better than I have 
done. I can do no more, I am failing — pray for me, that 
God may grant me a happy death." 

26. DEATH AND BURIAL. 

Luther always cherished a fondness for Mansfield, the 
home of his youth, and had found great satisfaction in 
the circumstance, that the Reformation had been accepted 
there. Yet he was so much the more grieved by the fact, 
that the head of the house of Mansfield, Count Albert, 
had become deeply involved in conflict with his own re- 
lations, and in his displeasure had oppressed his subjects 
severely. After a long and useless litigation, Albert was 



317 

prevailed upon to request Luther to act as arbitrator in 
the case, for Luther had often advised the reconciliation 
of the parties. In October, 1545, Luther went to Mans- 
field, in company with Melanchthon and Jonas, yet could 
accomplish very little, because, on account of an invasion 
by the Duke of Brunswick, the Counts had to hurry off 
to join the Saxon Army in the field. After Christmas, 
Luther went thither again, notwithstanding the severity 
of the winter and his own bodily infirmity. To Count 
Albert he said : "Although I have a great deal to do, yet 
I am willing to devote a whole week to this business, so 
that I may at last die in peace, having seen my honored 
Lords reconciled to each other, and acting upon friendly 
terms and living in cordial relations." Melanchthon 
took sick from the cold weather in Mansfield, and for this 
reason Luther returned to Wittenberg, promising to be 
in Mansfield again, at the end of January. 

About the middle of January, Luther wrote to his 
friend, Jacob Probst, of Bremen : " Old, decrepit, sluggish, 
weary, chilly, and now almost blind of one eye, I write 
to you, my dear Jacob, as one who has been hoping for 
death to come and kindly transfer him to that rest and 
peace to which, as it strikes me, I am entitled. But, just 
as if I had never worked at any thing, nor written, nor 
spoken, nor transacted, nor done anything at all, I am 
now overwhelmed with business and affairs that have to 
be written, and spoken, and handled, and transacted. 
Yet Christ is All in all ; He begins and He completes." 

On January 23d, Luther set off upon his last journey. 
His three sons and their tutor, Rutfeld, accompanied 
him. They were detained three days at Halle, by the 



318 



floating ice upon the Saale, which was then running 
high. They were lodged at the house of Justus Jonas. 
During this time Luther wrote to his wife : "A powerful 
anabaptist woman, bearing floods of water and huge 
cakes of ice, met us in the road ; she covered the ground 
around us and threatened us with an anabaptism. We 
could not go back to you, on account of the Mulda, and 

so we had to lie quietly at Halle, between the waters 

Now, as everybody, the boatmen, and we ourselves were 
afraid, we were not willing to venture upon the waters, 
and so to tempt God, for the devil has a dislike to us, and 
lurks in the water. Besides, it is better to take care of 
yourself, than to be lamented; and then again, there 
was no reason why we should give the Pope and the rest 
of his scaly set a chance to play off their tom-foolery. 
For the present I have nothing more to say than to beg 
you to pray for us, and hold on in the right way. My 
belief is, that if you had been here, you would, yourself, 
have advised us to do just as we have done, and so we 
would have followed your advice, for once. I commend 
you to God!" 

On the same day, January 25th, the day of St. Paul's 
conversion, Luther preached in the church of Pastor 
Jonas. Whilst sitting at the dinner-table he handed his 
old friend a glass, accompanying the act with an impres- 
sive apothegm : 

"To Jonas a glass, gives Luther this glass, who himself but a glass is, 
Hoping that both may remember, they're nought but frangible glasses."* 

On January 28th, the travellers, being joined by Jonas, 

* " Dat vitrum vitro Jonae vitrum ipse Lutherus, 
Ut vitro fragili similem se noscat uterque." 



319 



set out across the swollen Saale. At the borders of the 
Mansfield domain they were met by an honorable escort 
mounted on 113 horses. Upon coming very near the 
town of Eisleben, Luther was overcome by faintness and 
a difficulty in breathing, and his companions feared that 
he was dying. After he had recovered somewhat, he 
said, "That's the way the devil always serves me, to 
trouble me, whenever I have any important work on 
hand.'' He was carefully attended at Eisleben, and on 
January 31st he appeared in the pulpit and preached 
with his usual power. 

With the desire of keeping his wife free from anxious 
cares about himself, he wrote to her often and in cheer- 
ful spirits. She had been troubled with the fear that 
some accident might happen to him, whereupon he 
wrote: "My Dear Katie, read what St. John says, and 
read the Small Catechism of which you have often said, 
'that book contains everything about myself.' You want 
to take the responsiblity instead of letting it rest with 
God, just as if He were not the Almighty who could pro- 
duce ten Doctor Martins, if the old one were to perish in 
the Saale, or in the mouth of a furnace, or in Wolfs 
rookery. Let me be in peace, don't trouble me with your 
anxieties. I have One to take care of me who is better 
than you and all the angels are. He lies in the man- 
ger, He rests upon the bosom of a virgin, but at the same 
time, He sits at the right hand of God, the Father 
Almighty. Pray and let God take care of us." 

His efforts at pacification resulted, at first, in nothing 
but discord; at length, however, the proud heads of the 
defiant counts were humbled; and after two weeks the 



320 



peacemaker was able to write to his wife: "Behold how 
we are forced to learn that God is the answerer of 
prayer." 

Pie preached at Eisleben four times, the last sermon 




Church at Eisleben. 



being on February 15th, upon the text Matt. 11 : 25, etc. 
He ordained two clergymen the day before. During his 
stay at Eisleben, he partook of- the Lord's Supper twice. 



321 

In the house postil of a friend he wrote John 8:51, '"If a 
man keep my saying, he shall never see death," and then 
added, " how incredible does this sound; nevertheless it 
is the truth. If a man sincerely takes God's word into 
his heart, believes it, and falls asleep and dies in this 
faith, he sinks away and sets out before he is aware of 
death; and so he departs, assured of his salvation by that 
word in which he has believed." Very soon did he come 
to experience all this himself. 

At Eisleben, Luther had put up with John Albrecht, 
the city clerk, a friend of his youth, in the house of Dr. 
Drachstedt. Jonas, Rutfeld and his sons, Martin and 
Paul, occupied the same chamber with him ; and he re- 
tired to bed every evening about eight o'clock, having 
previously prayed aloud at the window. Generally, he 
rested well, although divers unfavorable symptoms be- 
gan to show themselves, so that his friends began to urge 
his going home. 

On February 16th, he put his busy pen to work for the 
last, time, writing certain observations upon the old Ro- 
man authors, Virgil and Cicero, to which he added: 
"Let no man think that he knows enough of the Holy 
Scriptures until he shall have spent an hundred years in 
studying the prophets, and learning how Elijah and 
Elisha, how John the Baptist, how Christ and the Apos- 
tles ruled the churches. ***** We are all beg- 
gars. That is true. February 16th, 1546." 

He spent the forenoon of Wednesday, February 16th, 
in his chamber, sometimes reclining upon a couch, some- 
times walking to and fro; Justus Jonas and Michael 
Cblius, Court Chaplain of Mansfield, remaining with him. 

21 



322 



He often stood at the window engaged in prayer. Turn- 
ing to his friends he said : " Dr. Jonas and Mr. Michael I 
was baptized here in Eisleben ; what would you think if 
I should have to stay here?" At the time of the regular 
meals he accompanied them to the dining room. Before 
supper he felt an oppression upon his breast, yet he was 
cheerful and joined in the conversation that related to 
things that are in heaven. When the question arose 
about meeting and recognizing each other in eternity 
his opinion was: that as Adam just aroused from sleep 
instantly recognized Eve who had been just then created 
as flesh of his flesh, all by reason of the illumination of 
the Spirit being given to him so, and indeed even much 
more perfectly shall we who are created anew in Christ 
be able to recognize each other there. Then he retired 
to his chamber, and standing at the window offered his 
prayer. This was followed by a severe attack of press- 
ure upon the breast. Aurifaber hastened to inform the 
Countess Albert who had a medicine which was very 
highly prized at that time called Einhorn, morse-tooth. 
Count Albert came himself and scraped off enough for a 
dose. Luther did not yet desire the presence of a physi- 
cian. Having slept about one hour he urged the friends 
who were watching with him to retire to rest, and then 
went towards his own smaller apartments into which a 
door opened from the larger room. Passing through this 
door he said: "God be with us, I now go to bed; into 
Thy hands I commit my spirit, for Thou hast redeemed 
me, Thou God of truth." After he had got into bed he 
gave his hand to his friends, bidding them good night, 
and then said : " Dr. Jonas and Magister Colius and all 
the rest, pray for our Lord God and for His Gospel that 



323 



it may prevail, for the Council of Trent, and the mali- 
cious Pope are fiercely enraged against it." He rested 
well until one o'clock, and then called to Rutfeld to 
make the room warm, although the heat had been well 
kept up. To Jonas he exclaimed: "0, my God, how 
I suffer. 0, dear Dr. Jonas, I think I shall have to stay 
here in Eisleben where I was born and baptized." Yet 
without any assistance he arose and went into the main 
room, repeating: "Into Thy hands I commit my spirit." 
Here he walked up and down once or twice, and then 
lay down upon the couch complaining of the pressure 
on his breast, but adding that the heart was not yet 
affected. At this point, the city clerk and his wife 
and two physicians were introduced. Soon afterwards 
the Count and Countess Albert came in, and, in a few 
minutes later, the Count and Countess Schwarzburg. 
Whilst they were employing divers means to relieve him, 
he sighed : " my God, what pain and distress I feel, I am 
going." When Jonas and Colius observed that a perspi- 
ration had begun, they looked upon it as a hopeful sign, 
and tried to encourage him, but he replied that it was the 
cold perspiration of death. Then he began to pray : " 
my Father in heaven, the God and Father of our Lord 
Jesus Christ, the God of all comfort, I thank Thee that 
Thou hast revealed Thy dear Son Jesus Christ unto me, 
in whom I believe, whom I have preached and confessed, 
whom I have loved and adored, whom the malicious Pope 
and all the ungodly dishonor, persecute and blaspheme. 
I beseech Thee, my Lord Jesus Christ, receive my 
poor soul. my heavenly Father, though I have to for- 
sake this body and have to be taken away from this life, 
yet I am assured that I shall dwell with Thee forever, and 



324 



that no one shall take me out of Thy hands." Then he 
thrice repeated the words distinctly, " God so loved the 
world that He gave His only begotten Son," etc., John 3: 
16, and also, " He that is our God is the God of salvation," 
etc., Psalm 68: 21. Whilst Colius was giving him a dose 
of medicine, he said: "I am going to leave you, I am 
about to yield up my spirit," and then three times in 
quick succession, " Father, into Thy hands I commit my 
spirit, for Thou hast redeemed me, Thou God of truth." 
Then he lay quiet, when his assistants began to shake 
him, and rub him, and call upon him, to which he 
neither opened his eyes nor gave answer. The Countess 
of Mansfield and the physicians then bathed his pulse 
with a refreshing lotion that had been sent for his own 
use by his wife. Jonas and Colius then, one after the 
other, leaning over to his ear, said distinctly : " Eeverend 
father, are you still determined to stand fast in Christ and 
in the doctrine which you have preached ?" to which he 
replied with a clear and distinct " Yes." Then he turned 
himself upon his right side and began to sleep, continu- 
ing so for nearly a quarter of an hour ; so that, excepting 
the physicians, all who were present hoped that he would 
get better. Soon, however, his face became pale, his feet 
were cold ; and with a deep but gentle breathing, he gave 
up his spirit. About three o'clock in the morning of 
February 18th, 1546, the great heart ceased to beat. 

Jonas, Colius and Aurifaber, who wrote a joint account 
of the circumstances attending Luther's death, could 
truthfully say, that in him the word of the Lord was ful- 
filled : " If a man keep my saying he shall never see 
death." 

Scarcely had the honored remains become cold, before 



325 



the other Counts of Mansfield, the Prince of Anhalt, 




many persons of noble rank, and citizens of Eisleben 
gathered around the bed where he had died and 



326 



triumphed. The body was dressed in a long, white linen 
garment, and placed in a metallic coffin. Luke Forte- 
nagel, of Halle, took a picture of the countenance in 
death ; and in the afternoon of February 19th, the coffin 
was borne into the large church, St. Andrews, where Jus- 
tus Jonas preached upon I. Thess. 4: 13-18. Ten citizens 
of Eisleben watched the body through the night. 

It was the wish of the Counts of Mansfield that the 
body should be buried at Eisleben ; but the Elector or- 
dered its transfer to Wittenberg; and then one more re- 
ligious service was held at Eisleben, on February 20th, 
the sermon being delivered by Colius, upon Isaiah 57: 1, 
etc. Then, the people gathering in large crowds, the 
funeral procession was formed. Two young Counts of 
Mansfield and fifty horsemen attended the body as a 
guard of honor. Whenever the hearse passed through 
any community it was received by pastors and churches, 
with the solemn tolling of bells, and reverently attended 
until the adjoining territory was reached. At Halle, the 
coffin was deposited over night in ^the "Church of our 
Lady," the citizens having gone out, with many indica- 
tions of grief, to meet the approaching funeral procession. 
At Halle, a waxen cast of the countenance of the deceased 
was taken, which cast is said to be preserved in the 
library of the " Church of our Lady." 

The funeral procession arrived at Wittenberg on the 
22d, where the sad intelligence had been received on 
the 19th. Melanchthon posted at the University a no- 
tice of the mournful event, ending in these terms: "Alas, 
the chariot of Israel and the horseman thereof has dis- 
appeared; he, who in this old age of the world, has 
guarded the interests of the church, has gone. It was 



327 

not human sagacity that uncovered the doctrine of the 
forgiveness of sins and of faith in the Son of God ; but it 
was God Himself who revealed it, through the instru- 
mentality of this man. We have seen and known how 
the illumination of the Holy Spirit was granted to him. 
Let us tenderly cherish his memory; let us sincerely 
love the doctrine he preached ; let us be wise and hold 
ourselves in readiness for the severe trials and the great 
changes which may be expected to follow from his death. 
And Thou, Son of God! crucified for us; but now Im- 
manuel, exalted forevermore. I beseech Thee, rule Thou 
throughout Thy church, uphold it and defend it. Amen." 
The body was received by the widow,* the University, 
the town-council, and the citizens, near the Elster gate, 
about 9 o'clock on the morning of February 22d. The 
procession moved slowly, towards the Castle Church; the 
clergy, the professors and students being in advance, and 
singing a funeral dirge, as they went along. The coffin 
was immediately preceded by the representatives of the 
Elector, by the Counts of Mansfield and their retinue. 
After the coffin came the widow, attended by some female 
friends, in a plain coach. Then Luther's sons with their 
uncle Jacob, of Mohra, followed ; then, the professors and 
teachers of the University, the town-council, the body of 
students, others, citizens of Wittenberg and of the vicinity. 
The sobbing and lamentations of the people were to be 
heard often, mingling with the solemn music of the 

* Luther's wife had a sad widowhood. She suffered, from straitened 
circumstances, during the time of the war that followed her husband's 
death. She was also misrepresented to the Elector. Her death occurred 
in the year 1552. She retained possession of the farm at Zulsdorf; but the 
support which it yielded her was meagre. 



328 




Services at the Castle Church. 



choir; and neither were the grey-headed men nor the 
studious youths ashamed of their tears. 

Bugenhagen preached in the Castle Church, upon the 
same text that Jonas had used at Eisleben. He was fol- 
lowed by Melanchthon, as the orator of the University, in 
an address in the Latin language. Kostlin, whose large 
work has been freely used in the preparation of this vol- 
ume, informs us, that Melanchthon's chief aim was, to 
remind his hearers, how lofty and how influential was 
the position in which God, in governing His Church, had 
placed the deceased ; how worthily Luther stood, in these 
latter days, in the noble line of witnesses for God, and 
teachers of Divine truth, that has come down to us, even 
from the times of the Old Testament ; how he had again 
brought to light the grand articles of Christianity; how, 
as a man taught of God, and experienced in mighty strug- 
gles of the soul, he had built up with one hand, and 
wielded the sword with the other, full of courage and of 
keen sagacity, with a gift of utterance so powerful and so 
commanding as to place him amongst the most eloquent 
of men. He referred also, to his human weaknesses, mak- 
ing special mention of the vehemency of the great man; 
quoting at the same time, the declaration of Erasmus, that 
the diseases of the present day demanded a bold physician, 
indeed. He asserted, that, with all his grandeur of char- 
acter, he was gentle, affable, and affectionate ; not boister- 
ous nor quarrelsome , especially, that he was without guile, 
and in general that, as St. Paul requires, Phil. 4: 8, he 
followed after "whatsoever things are true, and just, and 
pure, and lovely, and of good report." His vehemency 
grew out of his zeal for the truth ; and in all his fightings 
he retained a conscience void of offence. Then, referring 



330 

to his death, he added: "We are like poor orphan chil- 
dren who have had a loving father and have been be- 
reaved of him." He then continued, expressing his ap- 
preciation of the fellowship which the departed now has 
with God, and with the Lord Jesus, and with the Holy 
Fathers, and with the prophets and apostles. There, in 
that great school of learning, is Luther, where with open 
eyes he can contemplate the unfathomable mysteries of 
the Divine Majesty, of the Incarnation, of the Divine Coun- 
sels, etc., and with glowing heart, ascribe praise to God. 
There, he is the companion of the prophets, of whose 
works and whose ministry among the people of God he so 
much delighted to speak. He converses personally with 
them now, and is greeted as one of their own fellowship. 
The address of Melanchthon concluded with appropriate 
admonitions and exhortations, reminding his hearers of 
the promise of the Lord : " If a man love me, he will keep 
my words; and my Father will love him, and we will 
come unto him and make our abode with him." 

Then, the body was deposited in the grave, near the 
pulpit; and a plain metallic tablet marks the spot where 
the earthly remains of the great German await the resur- 
rection of the dead. 

In the summer of the following year, the Emperor, 
Charles V, having taken the Elector of Saxony captive, and 
so prevailed over him, stood at the grave of Luther, in the 
Church at Wittenberg. The atrocious Duke of Alba, 
standing by his side, said, that the Emperor ought to order 
the bones of the arch-heretic to be taken up and burned. 
To this ferocious advice the Emperor replied : " I make 
war upon the living, not upon the dead. Let this man 



331 



rest, undisturbed, until the day of resurrection and of 
judgment." 

Melanchthon himself now lies by the side of Luther — 
two friends, as were David and Jonathan. They are dead ; 
but they still live. In Luther, especially, was the word of 
the Lord fulfilled: "He that believeth on me, as the Scrip- 
ture hath said, out of his body shall flow rivers of living 
water." When the great day of the Lord, the day of the 
resurrection shall come, then shall the prophecy of Daniel 
be clearly realized and accomplished in Martin Luther : 
" They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the 
firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness, as 
the stars forever and ever." 

Let it be ours, in these later and obscurer times, to honor 
the admonition : " Remember them which have the rule 
over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God ; 
whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversa- 
tion Jesus Christ the same yesterday, to-day, and forever." 



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VII. 



EOPLE have not failed to erect monu- 
ments in honor of Luther. A bra- 
zen statue of Luther stands on the 
market-place of Wittenberg; and the place of 
the old wooden doors of the Castle Church is 
now occupied by brazen doors with the indel- 
ible 95 Theses cast upon them. In the vil- 
lage of Mohra, under the old lindens, there is a 
bronze image of the Reformer; and in the 
town of Eisleben, that has been enriched by 
his fame, it is intended to erect a costly statue, 
on the 400th anniversary of his birth. Since 
June 24th, 1868, there stands, in the city of 
Worms, that magnificent monument in which 
the mighty man, surrounded by the glorious men of his 
age, stands up the highest and the noblest of them all. 
Here and there all through middle Germany may be 
seen trees, the oak, and the beech, that are historic as 
connected with some event in the life of Luther, and 
every year, the Wartburg is a place of pilgrimage for 
thousands. No period of German history has furnished 
'subjects for the canvass, so numerous and so rich as has 
the period of the Reformation. One of the artists, Koenig, 
whose works have given him the name of Luther-Koenig 
(the King of Luther-painters) has lavishly employed his 
admirable talent to the honor of Doctor Martin. A 
long line of poets has sung the praises of his heroic life. 
This present volume, small in size, though it follows, as 
the later fruit, after the great productions that have gone 
before, is certainly, not the last. Luther's hymns maintain 

(332) 



333 



their influence even over the opponents of the pure doc- 
trine and the true Church ; and among people not of Ger- 
man origin this most German of Germans is a personality 
before whom men bow with respectful veneration. 

In the history of the German people, the German lan- 
guage, and German manners, Luther stands up a lofty 
tower, commanding the attention both of friend and foe. 
From among the innumerable expressions of opinion, con- 
cerning Martin Luther, that have been uttered within 400 
years we select a few wdiich may serve as crowns of honor 
to his memory. 

1544. 

Calvin, the Reformer, of Geneva, writes to Bullinger, of 
Zurich : " I beg that you may consider what a great man 
Luther is; with w r hat gifts he has been endowed; with 
what power, with what steadfastness, with wdiat address, 
with what learning, he has been fighting against the king- ' 
dom of Antichrist, and for the propagation of the true 
doctrine of our salvation." 

1697. 

Spener, who had such a clear personal experience of the 
grace of God, court-chaplain at Dresden, and at Berlin, in 
his Lutherus redivivus, says: "In the days of our fathers, 
God was pleased again, to have pity on his church, and to 
give it a new token of His favor, in the blessed work of 
the Reformation. At that time then, did he send forth 
preachers of the Gospel, in goodly numbers and endowed 
with precious gifts; amongst whom was one, a star of the 
first magnitude, who surpassed all the rest, that venerable 
man of God, Doctor Martin Luther. Gladly do we em- 
brace the opportunities that are often given to us to speak 
of him; and, by so doing, to record our gratitude to God, 
for the many talents that were committed to him, and 
for the blessings conferred upon the church, through his 

ministry We can say, with perfect truth, that seven 

genuine gifts of the Holy Ghost were imparted to this 
man, in full measure : erudition, eloquence, diligence, fer- 



334 

vent love for God and man, an exemplary life above re- 
proach, faith of extraordinary strength, and patience that 
was always rejoicing." 

1740. 

Bengel, the profound and able Swabian commentator, 
says : " Luther was truly, a great man. All his colleagues 
together could not have made a Luther. They had all to 
stand in wholesome respect of him ; and he knew well 
how to use each of them in the very way in which he 
could be the most useful. If any of them ever conceived 
any other or different notions, he prudently kept them 
quiet until Luther was dead. The death of Luther is an 
important boundary line, in history. After the death of 
Luther there was nothing new added to the work of the 
Reformation." 

1840. 

Ernst Maurice Arndt, one of the liberators of Germany, 
says: " Luther was a man of God, a German, who thought 
more of hearty sincerity than of nonsense, who attached a 
higher value to truth than to lying, who believed in 
God and worshipped Him, but fought and despised the 
devil. Shy and timid he is when first entering upon the 
course; but the further he advances the stronger, the 
grandeur he grows. His body seems to grow; his heart, 
his courage, his whole bearing is improved and developed, 
so that they who had previously known him, were amazed 
to see into what manliness of presence, and what stateli- 
ness of mien the poor little retiring monk had grown. It 
was possible only for such a stern, fiery, unconquerable 
spirit as was his, possible only for a man in whom courage, 
sagacity, eloquence, classical and scientific culture were 
combined as they were in him, to lay hold of such a gi- 
gantic work, and to carry it through. But what could he 
have done if he had not had the faith that was in him ? 

By means of the most delicate and most ethereal 

of instruments, fervid with a fire that was sometimes over- 
flowing, by the omnipotent word, for the exposition and 



335 



diffusion of which his soul was clothed with strength and 
light, and his lips enriched with the power of faith and of 
Divine assurance, Luther wrought and perfected a work 
which was, in the highest degree, immense." 

1861. 

Dollinger, Catholic Professor at Munich, says : " Luther 
is the grandest man of the people, the most popular char- 
acter that Germany could ever claim. The protestant 
doctrine was developed in the spirit of this German, the 
greatest German of his age. In the presence of the supe- 
riority and creative energy of this genius, the rising and 
enterprising part of the nation bowed down, in meek rev- 
erence and in full confidence. Recognizing in him, this 
union between force and guiding spirit, they acknowl- 
edged him as their master ; they lived upon his thoughts ; 
and for them, he was the hero in whom the nation itself 
was embodied, with all its peculiar traits. They gazed 
upon him with admiration; they surrendered themselves 
to his control ; because they saw that it was nothing but 
their own most profound experience which was expressed 
in his writings, more clearly, more eloquently, more pow- 
erfully than they could ever have expressed it themselves. 
Accordingly, for Germany, the name of Luther is not sim- 
ply the name of a distinguished man ; it is the living germ 
of a period in the national life, it is the centre of a new 
circle of ideas, the most direct and apt expression of the 
religious and moral views that controlled the attention 
of the German spirit, from the mighty influence of wdiich 
even they who opposed them could not entirely escape." 

1880. 

Carlyle, the great English critic, says : " I will call this 
Luther a true great man ; great in intellect, in courage, 
affection and integrity, one of our most lovable and pre- 
cious of men. Great, not as a hewn obelisk ; but as an 
Alpine mountain, — so simple, honest, spontaneous, not set- 
ting up to be great at all ; there for quite another purpose 
than being great. Ah yes, unsubduable granite, piercing 



336 

far and wide into the heavens ; yet in the clefts of it foun- 
tains, green beautiful valleys with flowers. A right spirit- 
ual hero and prophet, for whom this century and many 
centuries yet to come will be thankful to heaven." 

In conclusion, we offer a chaplet composed of fragrant 
American blossoms, that are never likely to wither. 

" We have no reason to be ashamed of the person Lu- 
ther. On the contrary, we have the strongest reasons to 
glory in him, in defiance of the slanders of the Papists. 
His unfeigned piety, his invincible trust in God, his daunt- 
less heroism in the presence of danger, his unremitting 
diligence in prayer and supplication, his genuine meekness 
and simplicity, his transparent disinterestedness far re- 
moved from avarice and the love of money, his tender 
sympathy for all the sorrowing, his beneficence ever flow- 
ing freely for all who were in need, his sincerity utterly 
averse to the ways of the flatterer and of the hypocrite, his 
candor that marked his intercourse with the lofty and the 
lowly, his sobriety, his abstinence, his purity, his self- 
consuming diligence, his faithfulness as son, as husband, 
as father, as preacher, as professor, as friend, as counselor, 
as citizen, in a word, his full exemplary piety, altogether, 
present a model of true Christianity that may command 
the admiration, and is worthy of the imitation of all sub- 
sequent times. 

Further, we have abundant reason to boast of Luther's 
exalted gifts, and of the use he made of them, of his pro- 
found wisdom, his extraordinary learning, his penetrating 
judgment, his commanding eloquence, his fine poetic in- 
spiration, his incomparable services to the church, the 
state and society at large, to art, to science, to our German 
name and our glorious German speech, and above all to 
the gigantic work of the Reformation, the triumph of which , 
under God, the church owes to the faithfulness of Luther. 

(Extract from sermon by Dr. C. F. W. Walther.) 
* 

Qod's Word and Luther's doctrine pure 
£hall tlirougli eternity endure. 



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